ilks with Great Workers 









BY THE AUTHOR OF PUSHING TO THE FRON' 




The World 

M akesWay 

'for a Deter- 

I mined Man" 



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Pushing to the Front ; or. 
Success Under Difficulties 

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JOHN HAY. 



TALKS WITH GREAT 
WORKERS 



EDITED BY 



ORISON SWETT MARDEN 

Editor of " Success " 

Author of " Pushing to the Front," "The Secret of Achieve 

ment," "The Hour of Opportunity," "An 

Iron Will," etc. 



e^ 



NEW YORK 

THOMAS Y. CROWELL & CO. 

PUBLISHERS 






THF LIBRARY OF 
CONGRESS, 

Two Copies Receiveo 

SEP. 21 1901 

,COPYmaHT CTTRV 

CLASS ^ XXa No. 
COPY A. 



Copyright, iooi, 
By Orison Swett Marden. 



THE LIBRARY 
Of CONGRESS 

WASHINGTON 



INTRODUCTORY NOTE. 



Nothing is more fascinating than the romance of 
reality in worthy achievement under difficulty, than con- 
trasting pictures of obscure beginnings and triumphant 
endings, than stirring stories of strenuous endeavor and 
final victory. 

These inspiring narratives, many of which have ap- 
peared in " Success," have frequently proved turning- 
points in the lives of ambitious youths striving against 
iron circumstances. They have caused many a dull boy 
and girl to determine to be and to do something in the 
world. This is but another proof of the old theory that 
concrete illustrations are most effective in pointing morals 
and shaping conduct. 

In response to repeated requests the author has selected 
from " Success " those life stories which have proved 
most helpful to its readers, and has added thereto new 
and helpful material, combining the whole in a book 
intended for the youth of all ages. 

In choosing the illustrations the formation of charac- 
ter, the application of industry and will-power, and the 
inculcation of persistence and thoroughness have been 



iv INTRODUCTORY NOTE. 

kept constantly in mind. The author sincerely trusts 
that there are young people who, after reading these 
true tales, which explode the excuses of those who thiuk 
they have " no chance " in life, will be encouraged to 
start out and duplicate them. 

To all who have aided me in securing and preparing 
this matter I express grateful acknowledgment, es- 
pecially to each of those whose biography is here re- 
lated. 

Orison Swett Marden. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER PAGE 

I. A Life of Aspiration — the Career 

of Senator Depew 1 

Oratorical training and opportunity ; points 
upon business. 

II. Sir Thomas Lipton 12 

The great yacht sportsman, who took American 
business methods to England. 

III. Ambitious to rise in Life — never by 

Luck 18 

Russell Sage upon opportunity, integrity, physi- 
cal vigor 

IV. When Mrs. Russell Sage was a Girl . 23 

The wife of the millionaire financier tells of 
her early efforts to earn her own living. 

V. One of the Makers of the new New 

York 28 

VI. Downright Hard Sense as to the Way 

to make Money 34 

The story of a Connecticut clock peddler who 
built a Transcontinental Railway. 

VII. Building up a Great Shipping House . 41 
VIII. The Financial Value of " A Good 

Business Standing " 47 

IX. The Story of Governor Flower of 

New York 52 

V 



VI 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER 

X. 
XL 



XII. 



XIII. 
XIV. 

XV. 

XVI. 
XVII. 

XVIII. 

XIX. 

XX. 



To Country Boys : How to get on in 

a Great City 61 

Sightless, but Far-seeing : A Blind 

Merchant Prince 65 

How he got his start ; cardinal rules for busi- 
ness success ; guideboards to prosperity. 

A Scotch-Irish Emigrant Boy, who 
saved his Money and had an Eye 
for Investments 73 

The perception of opportunity, integrity, 
earnestness, and attention to details. 

The Boy who became President of 

the Southern Express 77 

A Farm Boy 84 

How grit, promptness, economy, sagacity, 
and personal courage have won the prize. 

A Farm Boy's Road to Fame ... 92 

Ploughman, teacher, lawyer, legislator, — 
Tom Watson. 

What a Blind Farmer can do . . 96 

The Butter King 99 

Seventy miles of cows and seven million 
pounds of butter. 

HOW TO SUCCEED IN BANKING . . . 104 

Honesty and strength of will ; courtesy, econ- 
omy, self-culture. 

Lincoln Bank 112 

A boy put upon his honor ; the elements of 
success. 

The Value of Energy, Alertness, 

Self-Control 117 

The possibilities of achievement depicted by 
one who had a great career in India. 



CONTENTS. 



Vll 



CHAPTER PAGE 

XXI. The Relation of Plodding to Suc- 
cess — The Premier of Canada . 124 
XXII. John Sherman's Boyhood .... 129 

XXIII. He was Equal to his Great Oppor- 

tunity 133 

XXIV. The Working Men who were Car- 

negie's Partners 139 

Vigor and self-reliance ; ability and fidel- 
ity ; onward ever, always upward. 

XXV. The Golden Rule in Business . . 152 
The good will and fellowship of employees. 
XXVI. From Maine to Michigan .... 158 
XXVII. The Generous Treatment of Work- 
men — It pays 165 

A practical demonstration. 
XXVIII. A Rich Man who is Praised by 

the Poor 174 

XXIX. The Discoverer of Two Hundred 

Inventions 179 

Success found in hard work. 

XXX. A Captain of Invention ; and the 

Girl who knew too much . . . 185 
XXXI. Prudence, Perseverance, and En- 
terprise of Robert Bonner . . 193 
XXXII. The King of the Penny Press . . 201 

XXXIII. Joseph Jefferson's Six Maxims . 207 

XXXIV. Secret of Bourke Cockran's Suc- 

cess on the Platform and at 

the Bar 211 

XXXV. From Log Cabtn to Senate . . . 216 



Vlll 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER , PAGE 

XXXVI. Artistic Fame in a Day — after 

Long Years of Preparation . 221 

XXXVII. Inspiration of the Sculptor's Art, 225 
The charm of good work ; unhasting, un- 
resting. 

XXXVIII. A Great Marine Painter ... 230 
XXXIX. Years of Labor to make of Pho- 
tography a Fine Art .... 235 
XL. America's Great Bandmaster — 

Sousa 240 

His tireless energy. 

XLI. The Building of a Great Univer- 
sity 245 

A pioneer's high ideals and lofty pur- 
poses. 

XLII. The Newsboy College-President, 251 
By the late Frances E. Willard. 

XLIII. A Talk with Girls — How to 

Study 255 

By Mary A. Livermore. 

XLIV. Our Uncrowned Queen .... 261 
One of the most influential careers of the 
nineteenth century. 

XLV. The Elevation of Womanhood . 273 
XLVI. The Bright Side of Literary Life, 

and Points for Young Writers, 279 
XLVII. She loves her Work — Mrs. Bur- 
ton Harrison ....... 284 

XL VIII. The Mill-Girl Poet : her Friend- 
ship with Whittier . . . . ■ 288 



CONTENTS. 



IX 



CHAPTER PAGE 

XLIX. Julian Hawthorne to Literary Aspi- 
rants 294 

L. " Uncle Remus " 297 

LI. A Secret told by Anthony Hope . . 300 
LII. Sir Walter Besant's Ideas upon Suc- 
cess 306 

LIII. A Turning Point in Life, as related 

to the Author by Ira D. Sankey . 314 
LIV. The Practical Talent of a M any- 
Sided Man 318 

LV. The Power of Oratory ; and Coun- 
sel by a Leader of Young Men . 323 



TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS, 



A LIFE OF ASPIRATION; 

THE CAREER OF SENATOR DEPEW: ORATORICAL 

TRAINING AND OPPORTUNITY; POINTS UPON 
BUSINESS. 



Mr. Depew's early home was at Peekskill on the Hud- 
son. He is, upon his father's side, a descendant of the 
French Huguenots, who founded the village of New 
Rochelle, In Westchester county. His mother, Martha 
Mitchell, was of illustrious and patriotic New England 
descent, being a member of the family to which be- 
longed Roger Sherman, a signer of the Declaration of 
Independence; and he is a lineal descendant of the Rev. 
Josiah Sherman, chaplain of the Seventh Connecticut 
Continental infantry, and of Gabriel Ogden, of the New 
Jersey militia, both of whom served in the American 
Revolution. 

Upon my meeting Mr. Depew, I asked his judgment 
as to the qualities of character that make for success 
in life, and the way to win. At first I inquired whether, 
in his opinion, the 



2 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

OPPORTUNITIES 

awaiting ambitious young men are less or more than they 
have been in the past. 

" More, decidedly more," he replied. " Our needs in 
every field were never greater. The country is larger, 
and, while the population is greater, the means to supply 
its increased wants require more and more talent, so that 
any young man may gain a foothold who makes his 
effort with industry and intelligence." 

" Do you mean to say that there is an excellent posi- 
tion awaiting every one ? " 

" I mean to say that, while positions are not so numer- 
ous that any kind of a young man will do, yet they are 
so plentiful that you can scarcely find a young man of 
real energy and intelligence who does not hold a respon- 
sible position of some kind. The chief affairs are in the 
hands of young men." 

"Was it different in your day, when you were begin- 
ning ? " 

" Energy and industry told heavily in the balance then, 
as now, but the high places were not available for young 
men because the positions were not in existence. We 
had to make the places and call ourselves to the tasks. 
To-day a man fits himself and is called. There are 
more things to do. 

" Fifty years hence the great men of the world will be 
numbered by fifty thousands ; therefore it is safe to 
predict that the young man of to-day has just as much 
chance of gaining success in the future as had the man 
who lived fifty years ago. The world multiplies by 
degrees, and so the people become more numerous on the 
face of the earth. Idle territories, that are bound to in- 
crease and progress, will become the homes of this mass 
of human beings. 



CHAUNCEY M. DEPEW. 3 

" The boy of to-day has little to fear that the field is 
becoming overcrowded in our own country. It is just 
being opened. Young men of to-day, and those who are 
yet to be born, have conditions to look forward to that 
are far more favorable than they were to those of the 
past centuries." 

EDUCATION. 

" How was it with boys, in your day, who wanted to 
get an education ? " 

" With most of them it was a thing to earn. Why, 
the thing that I knew more about than anything else, as 
I grew from year to year, was the fact that I had nothing 
to expect, and must look out for myself. I can't tell 
you how clear my parents made this point to me. It 
absolutely glittered, so plain was it." 

"Had you any superior advantages in the way of 
money, books, or training ? " I continued. 

" If you want to call excellent training a superior ad- 
vantage, I had it. Training was a great point with us. 
We trained with the plow, the axe, and almost any other 
implement we could lay our hands on. I might even call 
the switch used at our house an early advantage, and, I 
might say, superior to any other in our vicinity. I had 
some books, but our family was not rich even for those 
times. We were comfortably situated, nothing more." 

" Do you owe more to your general reading than you 
do to your early school training ? " 

" Yes, I think so. I attended the school in our village 
regularly until I went to college ; but I was not distin- 
guished for scholarship — except on the ball-ground !" 

PHYSICAL VIGOR. 

" Do you attribute much of your success in life to 
physical strength ? " 



4 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

"It is almost indispensable. I was always strong. 
The conditions tended to make strong men in those days. 
I went to college in my eighteenth year. I think I 
acquired a broader view there, and sound ideals which 
have been great helps." 

" What profession did you fix upon as the field for 
your life work ?" I asked. 

" That of the law. I always looked forward to that ; 
and, after my graduation, in 1856, I went into a law 
office (that of Hon. William Nelson) at Peekskill, and 
prepared for practice. 

"That 'was a time of intense political excitement. 
There were factions in the Democratic party, and the 
Whig party seemed to be passing away. The Republican 
party, or People's party, as it had first been called, was 
organized in 1856, and men were changing from side to 
side. I joined the Republican party. When I gradu- 
ated at Yale College, in 1856," he continued, " I came 
home to the village of Peekskill to meet my father, my 
grandfather, my uncles, and my brothers, all old Hunker, 
State rights, pro-slavery Democrats. But I had been 
through the fiery furnace of the Kansas-Nebraska excite- 
ment at New Haven, and had come out of it a free-soil 
Republican. Two days after my return I stood, a trem- 
bling boy, upon a campaign platform to give voice to 
that conversion which nearly broke my father's heart, 
and almost severed me from all family ties. It seemed 
then as if the end of the world had come for me, in the 
necessity for this declaration of convictions and princi- 
ples, but I expressed my full belief. In this sense I 
believe a young man should be strong, and that such 
difficult action is good for him.' 7 



CHAUNCEY M. DErEW. 5 

THE YOUTHFUL ORATOR. 

" Is that where you began your career as an orator ? " 
I asked. 

" You mean as a stump-speaker ? Yes. I talked for 
Fremont and Dayton, our candidates, but they were de- 
feated. We really did not expect success, though, and 
yet we carried eleven States. After that I went back to 
my law books, and was admitted to the bar in 1858. 
That was another campaign year, and I spoke for the 
party then, as I did two years later, when I was a candi- 
date for the State Assembly, and won." 

The real glory, hidden by this modest statement, is that 
Mr. Depew's oratory in the campaign of 1858 gained him 
such distinction that he was too prominent to be passed 
over in 18G0. During that campaign he stumped the 
entire State, winning rare oratorical triumphs, and aid- 
ing the party almost more than any one else. How deep 
an impression the young member from Peekskill really 
made in the State legislature by his admirable mastery 
of the complex public business brought before him, may 
be gathered from the fact that when, two years later, he 
was reelected he was speedily made chairman of the 
committee on ways and means. He was also elected 
speaker, pro tern. ; and at the next election, when his 
party was practically defeated all along the line, he was 
returned. 

THE VAXDERBILT RAILWAYS. 

After briefly referring to the active part he took in the 
Lincoln campaign, I asked : 

" When did you decide upon your career as a railroad 
official ? " 

"In 1866. I was retained by Commodore Vanderbilt 
as attorney for the New York and Harlem road." 



6 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

" To what do you attribute your rise as an official in 
that field ? " 

" Hard work. That was a period of railroad growth. 
There were many small roads and plenty of warring 
elements. Out of these many small roads, when once 
united, came the great systems which now make it possi- 
ble to reach California in a few days. Any one who 
entered upon the work at that time had to encounter 
those conditions, and if he continued in it, to change 
them. I was merely a counsellor at first." 

In 1869 Mr. Depew was made attorney for the New 
York Central and Hudson River Railroad; and after- 
wards a director. This was the period of the develop- 
ment of the Vanderbilt system. .Mr. Depew was a con- 
stant adviser of the Vanderbilts, and, by his good 
judgment and sagacious counsel, maintained their con- 
stant respect and friendship. In 1875 he was made 
general counsel for the entire system, and a director in 
each one of the roads. 

It has often been urged by the sinister-minded that 
it was something against him to have gained so much at 
the hands of the Vanderbilts. The truth is that this is 
his chief badge of honor. Many times he has won in- 
fluence and votes for the Vanderbilt interests, but always 
by the use of wit, oratorical persuasion, and legitimate, 
honorable argument — never by the methods of the lob- 
byist. Commodore Vanderbilt engaged him as counsel 
for the New York Central Railroad, at a salary of 
$25,000 a year, — then equal to the salary of the Presi- 
dent of the United States, — and he always acknowl- 
edged that Mr. Depew earned the money. 

He became finally the head of the entire Vanderbilt 
system, or the controlling spirit of thirty distinct rail- 
roads, besides being a director in the Wagner Palace Car 



CIIAUNCEY M. DEPEW. 7 

Company, the Union Trust Company, the Western Union 
Telegraph Company, the Equitable Life Insurance 
Society, the Western Transit Company, the West Shore 
and International Bridge Company, the Morris Run Coal 
Mining Company, the Clearfield Bituminous Coal Cor- 
poration, the Hudson Eiver Bridge Company, the Canada 
Southern Bridge Company, the Niagara River Bridge 
Company, the Niagara Grand Island Bridge Company, 
the Tonawanda Island Bridge Company, the American 
Safe Deposit Company, the Mutual Gas Light Company, 
and the Brooklyn Storage and Warehouse Company. 

WORKING HOURS. 

"How much of your time each day," I asked, "have 
you given, upon an average, to your professional duties ? " 

" Only a moderate number of hours. I do not believe 
in overwork. The affairs of life are not important 
enough to require it, and the body cannot endure it. 
Just an ordinary day's labor of eight or ten hours has 
been my standard." 

POLITICS. 

" Your official duties never drew you wholly from the 
political field, I believe ? " 

" Entirely, except special needs of the party, when I 
have been urged to accept one task after another. I be- 
lieve that every man's energies should be at the disposal 
of his country." 

" On the political side, what do you think is the essen- 
tial thing for success ? " 

" The very things that are essential anywhere else — 
honesty, consistency, and hard work." 

" It requires no strain of character, no vacillation ? " 

"For twenty-five years," answered Mr. Depew, "I was 



8 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

on all occasions in the front of political battles, and I 
never found that political opinions or activity made it 
necessary to break friendships or make them." 

Mr. Depew's political career is already so well known 
that it need not be reviewed here. 

In 1888 he was the presidential candidate of the Re- 
publicans of New York State, at the national convention, 
but withdrew his name. President Harrison offered him 
the position of Secretary of State, to succeed Mr. Blaine, 
but he again declined. He is now a United States sen- 
ator from New York. 

AS TO THE RECENT WAR. 

Mr. Depew remarked that the new possessions mean 
everything to young men, who are going to be old men 
by and by : " We, as a nation, are going to find, by the 
wise utilization of the conditions forced upon us, how to 
add incalculably to American enterprise and opportunity 
by becoming masters of the sea, and entering, with the 
surplus of our manufactures, the markets of the world. 
The solid merchants are to undertake the extension of 
American trade, but the young men will be called in to 
do the work under their guidance. The young man who 
is ready is naturally the one chosen." 

MATERIAL SUCCESS. 

" Do you think a tide of prosperity waits for every 
young American ? " 

"It may not exactly wait, but he can catch it easily." 

" It is said," I replied, " that any field or profession, 
carefully followed, will bring material success. Is that 
the thing to be aimed at?" 

"Material success does not constitute an honorable 
aim. If that were true, a grasping miser would be the 



CIIAUNCEY M. DEPEW. 9 

most honorable creature on earth, while a man like Glad- 
stone, great without money, would have been an impossi- 
bility. The truth is that material success is usually the 
result of a great aim, which looks to some great public 
improvement ; some man plans to bean intelligent servant 
of some great public need ; and the result of great energy 
in serving the public intelligently is wealth. It never has 
been possible to become notable in this respect in any 
other way." 

THE FIELD FOR ORATORY. 

" It is often said that the excellent opportunities for 
young men are gone." 

" If you listen to ordinary comment," said Mr. Depew, 
" you can come to believe that almost anything is dead 
— patriotism, honor, possibilities, trade — in fact, any- 
thing, and it's all according to whom you talk with. 
There was a belief, not long ago, that the great orators 
were dead, and had left no successors. Papers and 
magazines were said to supply this excellent tonic. Yet 
orators have appeared, great ones ; and in the face of the 
beauty, and grace, and fire which animate some of them, 
you read the speeches of the older celebrities and 
wonder what it was in them that stirred men." 

"And this field is also open to young men ? " 

"Not as a profession, of course, but as a means to 
real distinction, certainly. The field was never before 
so open. I have listened to Stephen A. Douglas, with 
his vigorous argument, slow enunciation, and lack of 
magnetism ; to Abraham Lincoln, with his resistless logic 
and quaint humor ; to Tom Corwin, Salmon P. Chase, 
William H. Seward, Charles Sumner, and Wendell 
Phillips ; and as I look back and recall what they said, 
and the effect which they produced, and then estimate 



10 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

what they might do with the highly cultivated and criti- 
cal audiences of to-day, I see the opportunity that awaits 
the young man here. Only Wendell Phillips strikes me 
as possessing qualities which are not yet duplicated or 
surpassed." 

WHAT IS SUCCESS. 

" You recognize more than one kind of success, then ? " 
" Yes ; we can't all be Presidents of the United States. 
Any man is successful who does well what comes to his 
hand, and who works to improve himself so that he may 
do it better. The man with the ideal, struggling to carry 
it out, is the successful man. Of course, there are all 
grades of ideals, and the man with the highest, given 
the proportionate energy, is the most successful. The 
Avorld makes way for that kind of young man. I know 
we would do it in the railroad world." 



HAPPINESS. 

"Do you consider that happiness in the successful 
man consists in reflecting upon what he has done, or 
what he may do ? " 

" I should say that it consists in both. No man who 
has accomplished a great deal could sit down and fold 
his hands. The enjoyment of life would be instantly 
gone if you removed the possibility of doing something. 
When through with his individual affairs, a man wants 
a wider field, and of course that can only be in public 
affairs. Whether the beginner believes it or not, he will 
find that he cannot drop interest in life at the end, what- 
ever he may think about it in the beginning." 



CIIAUNCEY M. BE PEW. 11 



THE AIM IX LIFE. 

" The aim of the young man of to-day should be, 
then — " 

" To do something worth doing, honestly. Get wealth, 
if it is gotten in the course of an honorable public ser- 
vice. I think, however, the best thing to get is the 
means of doing good, and then doing it. It is the most 
satisfactory aim I know of." 



II. 

SIR THOMAS LIPTON : 

THE GREAT YACHT SPORTSMAN, WHO TOOK 
AMERICAN BUSINESS METHODS TO ENGLAND. 



When I saw Sir Thomas Lipton at the Fifth Avenue 
Hotel in New York, he kindly consented to give me cer- 
tain facts, relating to his remarkable business career, 
that are of great interest. 

A SON OF POVERTY. 

" I suppose/' he said, " you have read that I am the 
son of a poor laborer, who was scarcely able to give me 
any schooling at all. We lived in Glasgow, my parents 
and I, and at the age of ten I was obliged to quit school 
and go to work as a messenger in a stationery store. 
My wages, while I occupied that position, were just sixty 
cents a week, so you see I did not have anything very en- 
couraging to which to look forward. I was ambitious, 
and attended a night school, where I obtained most of 
the education that I have. I have educated myself, and 
think that I have made good use of what I managed to 
learn. 

" As I said, I was ambitious, and I had not been in the 
stationery store very long before I ran away and came to 
America in the steerage of an Anchor Line boat. My 

12 




SIR THOMAS LIPTON. 



SIR THOMAS LIPTON. 13 

parents were naturally opposed to my going so far away 
from home alone, and refused their permission, so I had 
to run away. I would not advise boys to do that, as a 
general thing, but my American trip certainly did me a 
vast amount of good. When I arrived on this side I 
went down to South Carolina and worked on a planta- 
tion, but I did not receive my wages until the crops were 
sold in the fall, and I did not like that very well. I soon 
tired of South Carolina life, and came from Charleston 
to New York, again as a stowaway. I got a situation of 
no consequence in New York, and remained here awhile; 
but finally, deciding that America was not the place for 
me, I returned to Glasgow, discouraged and disheartened. 

WHEN HE BORROWED FIVE CENTS. 

"I remember, as if it were yesterday," said Sir 
Thomas, "how utterly hopeless my financial condition 
seemed to be when I was a boy of fifteen in New York. 
My experiences were anything but pleasant, without 
work as I was, a stranger in a great city. I got used to 
living on a few cents a day, but when it came to such a 
pinch that I could not buy a five-cent stamp to carry a 
letter to the old folks in Glasgow, I very nearly gave up. 
I really think that decided me to go back. It accentuated 
my homesickness. I thought of the prodigal son. I bor- 
rowed five cents for that letter, and resolved to get back 
as soon as a chance offered. I can tell you I was glad 
when I once more set foot on the other side. I had re- 
frained from telling my people how hard up I had been. 
This was largely a matter of pride with me, but another 
consideration was their feelings. I would do anything 
rather than distress them. So I stepped up, on my 
arrival, as jauntily as you ever saw a lad, and when a 
proposition was made to me by my father, soon after my 



14 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

home-coming, to set me up in a small grocery, I jumped 
at the chance. He had saved up a few hundred dollars, 
which he loaned me for capital, I opened a provision 
shop, and I may say that there is where my real career 
began. The other years were preparatory lessons, which 
fitted me for my later career as a merchant. My whole 
heart was in this first little shop, and I dressed the 
windows, attended to the customers, and did everything 
myself. I was careful of the slightest detail, and took 
care that my customers always went away pleased ; and 
to that solicitude on my part in those days I owe the 
greater success that has attended my later efforts. 
My little shop brought great success, and, encouraged 
by this, I began to establish other shops in Glasgow and 
other cities, until finally, by degrees, of course, I ac- 



quir 



ired the great business which is now mine. 



& 



FOLLOWED AMERICAN BUSINESS METHODS. 

" I made money from the start. I put in practice 
what I had seen abroad — such as displaying goods 
attractively in windows, keeping the place as neat as a 
pin, and waiting personally on my customers. I have 
always felt that my American experiences have proved 
valuable, for my wits were sharpened, and my commer- 
cial training was largely obtained on this side. 

" Every business idea," he added frankly, " every suc- 
cessful move I have made, has been suggested to me by 
my observation of American methods. Even in our 
boat, our c Shamrock/ we incorporated a great many 
features that were of American origin." 

THE PRINCIPLES ESSENTIAL TO SUCCESS. 

" Are there any special principles that you think are 
essential to success in business ? " 



SIR THOMAS LIFT ON. 15 

" Well, I think there are. For one thing, it is a rule 
of my business to do away, as much as possible, with the 
middleman. I do not think he is necessary, and he 
simply takes away a good share of the profits. Further, 
I of course believe in advertising. I think every up-to- 
date business man does that. It is easy to see that the 
best way to reach the public is through the papers, for 
everybody reads nowadays. I am now spending a million 
dollars a year in advertising." 

THE SHIPWRECK. 

A characteristic story is told of Sir Thomas by a ship- 
per who knew him in London. A merchant vessel car- 
rying a cargo of tea, and with plain Thomas J. Lipton, 
merchant, aboard, was threatened with shipwreck in the 
South Atlantic. A furious storm had driven the ship 
far out of its course. It was leaking badly, and threaten- 
ing rocks rose in sight. Mr. Lipton spent the last hour 
before the vessel was dashed on the rocks and lost, in 
painting the words " Use Lipton's Teas " on the chests. 
These were afterwards picked up on various shores, and 
served to bring the merchant into his first prominence 
abroad. All the ship's company got ashore safely on an 
inhabited island, from which, after a few days, came a 
very creditable account of the shipwreck for publication 
in the London papers, signed " Lipton." The story that 
he furnished proved a great advertisement, introducing 
his name to the nation at large. 

HARD WORK THE SECRET. 

" But, Sir Thomas," I asked, continuing the interview, 
" there must be some secret about your success ? " 

" Nonsense ! " he replied. " This secret business is 
all nonsense. I have simply worked hard, devoted my 



16 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

whole time to my business, had my heart in it, and I 
could not help succeeding. If every healthy young man 
will be temperate, work hard all the time, and do unto 
others as he would be done by he cannot help succeeding. 
But few young men are willing to work. They are too 
particular about the hours they spend in the store or 
office. Why, I often say that I have worked twenty-five 
hours out of twenty- four, and I do believe that I get 
twice as much done in a day as do most men. I have 
never been afraid of hard work, and have worked just as 
hard since my business has become established as I did 
before. I owe almost all of my success, I think I can 
truthfully say, to hard work and nothing else." 

" And what advice would you give young men who 
are about to start out for themselves, Sir Thomas ? " 

" That 's a broad question. It would take me some 
time to answer it properly. 

"Hard work is the cardinal requisite for success. I 
always feel that I cannot impress that fact too strongly 
upon young men. And then a person's heart and soul 
must be in his work. He must be earnest, above all, and 
willing to give his whole time to his work, if necessary. 

THE GOLDEN RULE PAYS. 

"Honesty, it goes without saying, is necessary, and if 
you ivant to be ivholly successful you must do unto others 
as you would have them do unto you. If you do not, they 
will be sure to retaliate when you least expect it. If 
young men would follow these rules they would get 
along very well." 

THE EXTENT OF HIS BUSINESS. 

" Your business must be an enormous one now, Sir 
Thomas, from the stories in the English papers about 



SIR THOMAS LIP TON. 17 

the organization of your enterprises into a limited com- 
pany." 

" Yes, I have a good deal to attend to," he said, smil- 
ing. "I have sixty stores in London alone, and four 
hundred and twenty the world over, most of them being 
in the British Isles. I sell all food products except beef, 
which I have never handled. I own thousands of acres 
on the island of Ceylon, where I am the largest indi- 
vidual land-owner. On this land I grow tea, coffee, and 
cocoa, and employ several thousand natives to cultivate 
and ship it. I have warehouses all over Asia, and branch 
stores in Hamburg and Berlin. In Chicago I have a 
packing-house where I sometimes kill three thousand 
hogs in a day. So you see my enterprises are pretty 
well scattered over the earth. 

THE KHSTD OF MEN HE EMPLOYS. 

" Plow many employees have I ? Well, all in all, I 
have somewhat over ten thousand, and a nicer lot of 
employees you never saw. I have never had a strike, 
and never expect to have one, for I make it my personal 
duty to see that my men are all comfortably fixed. We 
live together in perfect harmony. I am very careful 
about the kind of men I employ. I make sure that every 
man in my service is sober and of general good character, 
as well as a good worker. That, I think, is one of the 
chief aids to success." 

THE CONFIDENCE OF THE BRITISH PUBLIC. 

Upon the occasion of converting the Lipton business 
house into a " Limited Company," more than two hun- 
dred million dollars were offered in two days ; the mail 
for those two days comprising forty thousand letters 
from every part of the United Kingdom. 



III. 



AMBITIOUS TO EISE IN LIFE —NEVER BY 
LUCK. 

RUSSELL SAGE UPON OPPORTUNITY, INTEGRITY, 
PHYSICAL VIGOR. 



Eew great fortunes have been acquired by one man, 
or within the limits of a single lifetime. The vast 
wealth of the Vanderbilts, the Astors, and many others 
has accumulated through several generations. It is sel- 
dom, indeed, that a fortune like that of Russell Sage is 
amassed by one man. For years the newspapers of the 
country have been filled with stories of his eccentricities. 

When I called at the great banker's office I found it 
very hard to obtain an audience with Mr. Sage, even 
though I had an introduction to him. He has so often 
been the victim of cranks, and has so many callers at his 
office, that he has been obliged to deny himself to all 
alike. I found him seated at an old flat-topped desk, 
looking over the stock reports of the day, and I was sur- 
prised at the extreme simplicity of all his surroundings. 
The furnishings of the room looked as if they might have 
seen service before the Civil War, and, upon later in- 
quiry, I learned that most of the chairs and the desk 
itself have been in use by Mr. Sage for more than twenty- 
five years. He has become so attached to them that he 

18 











•••••"•'■ 


^^•P^^^^Bi ^^^^^^^B T t 


^ » 


f/ ^ ™ 




E 









RUSSELL SAGE. 19 

cannot discard them for more modern inventions. Mr. 
Sage is smooth-faced, and his hair is thin and gray. His 
clothes are fashioned in the style of thirty years ago, but 
of good material and well kept. His shoulders are bent 
with care and age, but his face has a good color, and a 
happy smile that betokens health and a peaceful mind. 

" I have come to ask you to tell me the story of your 
life," I said, " for I am sure it must be of great interest." 

Mr. Sage smiled. "I don't know about its being of 
interest. It is very simple and commonplace to me. 
You know I began as a grocery clerk, in a country town. 
That is a very humble beginning, I'm sure. I received a 
dollar a week for working from early morning until late 
at night, but I was well satisfied with my lot, because I 
knew that it was bound to lead to better things. So I 
worked my very best, and saved my wages, which were 
slowly increased as I went along, and finally I had 
enough money to start a little store for myself. When I 
was twenty-one years old I had a store of my own, and I 
made a success of it." 

" But how did you happen to come to New York ? " I 
asked. 

" Oh, I was ambitious," laughed Mr. Sage. " Like 
most boys, I thought there was no other place like a city 
for success, and I finally sold my country store when I 
was still very young, and came to New York. I started 
in as office boy, at very low wages, and from that day on 
I worked myself up and up, until I finally became a 
financier on my own account. It took a long time, 
though. It was not all accomplished in a day ; though 
when I came to New York I expected to be rich in two 
or three years. I was very much like other boys, you 
see. They all expect to get rich in a day." 

" But some of them never get rich," I said. 



20 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

" Well, it 's their own fault if they do not succeed," 
said the financier. " Surely, every one has as good a 
chance as I had. I don't think there could be a poorer 
opportunity for a boy to rise. The trouble is that most 
of them are not very anxious to rise. If they find them- 
selves wealthy some morning they are glad, of course; 
but they are not willing to work, and make themselves 
rich." 

" Some say that it is all luck," I ventured to suggest. 

" Oh, pshaw ! " said Mr. Sage, with 'great disgust. 
" There 's no such thing as luck. I 'm sure there was 
none of it about my career. I know just how I earned 
every penny, and the reason for it, and I never got any- 
thing I did n't work for. I never knew any one to obtain 
lasting wealth without lots of hard work." 

" Do you think there are as good opportunities for get- 
ting rich to-day as there were thirty years ago, or when 
you made your start, Mr. Sage ? " 

" Undoubtedly. I think there are even greater oppor- 
tunities, for new industries are being established all the 
time, and there are broader fields to work in. But then, 
the old fields of business are not overworked, by any 
means. I always say that there is room for good men 
anywhere and at any time. I don't think there can ever 
be too many of them. It is true that there are many ap- 
plicants for every place in New York, but if I were un- 
able to get a place in an Eastern city I should go West, 
for there are great opportunities there for every one." 

" People say, though, that the West is not what it is 
supposed to be," I remarked. 

" Yes, there are always pessimists," said Mr. Sage. 
" The people who say the West has no opportunities are 
the same persons who used to call it foolish for any 
young man to come to New York. When I decided to 



RUSSELL SAGE. 21 

come here, I was told on every side that I would regret 
my action ; but I never have. Some people never see 
opportunities in anything, and they never get along. I 
did not see any very great opportunity ahead of me when 
I came to New York, but I knew that if I had a chance 
I could make one. I knew that there are always open- 
ings for energetic, hard-working fellows, and I was 
right." 

" Of course, you believe that strict honesty is essential 
to success, Mr. Sage ? I 've heard many people say that 
honesty does n't pay, especially in Wall street." 

"That is a foolish question," said the financier. " It 
is absurd to imagine that it pays to be dishonest, what- 
ever your business or profession. Do you suppose if I 
had been dishonest in any dealings when I started out, 
that I would be worth anything to-day ? " 

" What do you think of the chances for country boys 
in a great city like New York to-day, Mr. Sage ?" 

" I think they are as great as ever. Employers are on 
the lookout for bright young men, and I believe that they 
would prefer that they come from the country, provided 
there is no danger of their becoming dissipated. I think 
that is the only thing men have against country fellows, 
and there are many things in their favor. I think an 
earnest, ambitious, hard-working boy from the country 
has a splendid chance of becoming somebody. There are 
much greater opportunities for him to exercise his good 
qualities, and the reward of his enterprise is much larger. 
The same energetic labor that would make a man worth 
twenty-five thousand dollars in a small town would be 
very likely to make him worth a hundred thousand or so 
in a great city, and all on account of the wider field." 
"What, Mr. Sage, are the essentials of success ? " 
"The essentials to success, in my opinion, are just 



22 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

three : honesty, industry, and economy. Any young 
man, amid existing opportunities, has a chance of becom- 
ing a millionaire." 

" To what do you owe your wonderful vitality ? " I 
asked. Mr. Sage smiled, before answering me. 

" I never smoke, I never drink any liquors, I retire early, 
and get up early, and take care of myself in every possible 
way," he said. " Do n't you think I ought to be healthy ? 
I have always taken care of myself, and I think I 've 
proved that hard work is not bad for one's health. In 
fact, I think that work is the best thing I know of for 
improving a man's constitution, for it makes a good ap- 
petite, and encourages digestion. It is not work that 
ruins so many men. It 's the wine they drink, and the 
late hours they keep, and their general dissipation. I 
expect to be at my desk for many years to come, and just 
because I 've taken good care of myself. 

" You ask me why I don't stop work. I '11 do it if you 
will answer me one question : ' What else can I do that 
will do as much good and keep me as well ? ' Well, you 
can't answer it ; nobody can." 



IV. 

WHEN MRS. RUSSELL SAGE WAS A GIRL. 

THE WIFE OF THE MILLIONAIRE FINANCIER TELLS 
OF HER EARLY EFFORTS TO EARN HER OWN 
LIVING: COMMON SENSE VIEWS UPON TRAINING 
GIRLS. 



" What would you do if obliged to earn your own liv- 
ing ? " was the question I asked, on being granted an 
interview with Mrs. Russell Sage. 

" I had to earn my own living for several years," 
answered Mrs. Sage, " and I found no difficulty in doing 
it. Like many other families, we were made almost des- 
titute by the great panic of 1837, and my father was 
unable then to give me the advantages he would have 
offered had he kept his fortune. I was only nine years 
old at the time of the panic, and had been attending a 
small private school in Syracuse, where we lived. I had 
learned to read and write and spell, and was quite well 
educated for a girl in those days. But I was n't satisfied 
with what I knew ; and, appreciating the value of a good 
education, I determined to go to some higher school, even 
if I had to work my way through. In those days girls' 
schools were very scarce, and the best among them, per- 
haps, was at Mount Holyoke, Massachusetts. I was n't 
contented until I started for that college. Since my 
father's failure I had remained at home, helping my 

2:5 



24 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

mother with the housework, and my ambition was about 
to run away with me, when I saw my way to attend 
Mount Holyoke College. I found that I could pay a very 
small tuition fee, and help with the housework to pay for 
my board, and I determined to go." 

" Did you finish the course at Mount Holyoke ? " 
" Oh, no. In fact, I never reached that place. On my 
way to the school, I was taken very sick in Troy. When 
I recovered, my uncle wished me to go to the Troy Fe- 
male Seminary ; and there I remained, for it was too late 
to start with the freshman class that year at Mount 
Holyoke." 

" You attended Emma Willard's school, did n't you ? " 

" Yes, and then I went home again to mother. I was 

needed in the household. Every girl knew how to cook 

and sew and make beds then, even when she had a good 

education in languages and the sciences. 

" If my cook should leave me to-day I could do the 
work myself, without running all over the city for another 
girl before we could have anything to eat. Girls may 
never have to cook or keep house, but they ought to know 
how just the same. A woman never knows when she is 
likely to be in reduced circumstances, and for that as well 
as other reasons it is always well to know how to attend 
to the housework. 

" I remained at home for some time. Mother could n't 
spare me. At length, however, I felt that I might be a 
burden to my father, who never recovered from his losses 
in 1837, so I determined to teach for my living. I wanted 
to put the education for which I had worked so hard to 
some good use. I went to Philadelphia to teach in what 
is now the Ogontz School. It was hard work. Teachers 
had no specialties in those days. One hour I would be 
teaching geography, then would come a class in French, 



MRS. RUSSELL SAGE. 25 

and then grammar, spelling, and other studies before the 
day was over. I had long hours, but I had the satisfac- 
tion of feeling that I was paying my own expenses and 
living to some purpose." 

" But if you were a girl to-day, Mrs. Sage, you would 
probably not want to teach school ; there are so many 
fields open to women now." 

" Yes," she replied slowly, "there are many fields, but 
most of them are not just what I should want my 
daughter to occupy, if I had a daughter. If I were a girl 
to-day, I 'd do just what Louisa M. Alcott did. I knew 
her well, before and after she became famous. She said 
to me : * For twenty years I did whatever my hands found 
to do, — cooked, sewed, taught, nursed, wrote, — then all 
at once I found myself famous, as I never could have 
been but for that developing diversity.' 

" My experience in earning my own living," continued 
Mrs. Sage, "was wholesome and invigorating. Instead of 
being self-indulgent, I became self-reliant. I had been 
taught all sorts of work; for my mother believed, as I do, 
that no bit of real learning can be useless. To me it 
seems that the root of failure lies often in the thought 
that } T ou can do but one thing, and must do that or noth- 
ing. Successful people are those who take what comes 
to hand, and, if it be small, wait and work for something 
better." 

" Are there any particular things that you think a girl 
can do and earn a good living, Mrs. Sage ? " 

" Yes, there are. In my capacity of president of the 
Women's Hospital, I have considerable to do with nurses, 
and you would be surprised at the difficulty we have in 
getting good ones. We have hundreds of applicants, but 
most of them are either careless or incompetent, and we 
can't keep them. You hear much about there being too 



26 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

many nurses, but you may be sure there are not too many 
good ones. I think there 's always room at the top in 
every profession, and if a girl is truly ambitious, and 
gives her whole time and mind to her work, she is pretty 
sure to succeed. " 

" You must have a great many girls coming to you for 
help, Mrs. Sage ? " 

" I do, indeed ; and I always try my best to help them, 
but some of them will not help themselves, so I can- 
not help them. Girls nowadays have such an antipathy 
to doing housework. I have a young friend-, who is 
obliged to earn her living, and I wanted her to take a 
place as housekeeper in the house of a woman I know 
very well. The woman asked her if she could make a 
bed, and she declined the place, saying that she knew 
nothing at all about bed-making. She knew how to make 
a bed as well as any one, but she thought it beneath her 
dignity to do it. I have no sympathy for such women. 

" I don't understand it. I 'm sure it's much better for 
a girl to have a good home in a refined family, with her 
board and room furnished her, and often four dollars a 
week besides, than for her to stand on her feet from 
morning till night in some crowded store, where she prob- 
ably won't be able to save a cent from her slender wages. 
I tell girls that, time and again ; but they don't think that 
way, and the consequence is that housewives have hard 
work to get good girls, and the stores can get so many 
of them that they only pay them a meagre salary." 

" I suppose girls have always been much the same as 
they are now," I said. 

" I don't think so," said Mrs. Sage. " I know if I had 
a daughter she would be brought up Very differently from 
the way most girls are now. She would know how to 
cook and sew, and she would be taught to be some com- 



MRS. RUSSELL SAGE. 27 

fort to'lier parents, instead of being always out visiting, 
or attending a matinee of some kind. Some girls are no 
more comfort to their parents, nowadays, than if they 
didn't exist." 



ONE OF THE MAKERS OF THE NEW 
NEW YORK. 



The name of Andrew H. Green is indissolubly con- 
nected with that of imperial New York. When the 
schoolboys of the next century are asked to indicate her 
foremost citizen in this, the period of her political renais- 
sance and material grandeur, they will name him as the 
man who placed the civic crown upon her brow. As the 
" Father of Greater New York," he will find his most 
enduring reputation, although he has many other claims 
to distinction. It is probably true that no other individu- 
ality has been impressed so indelibly upon the history 
of the metropolis during the last half century. 

It is a gratifying circumstance that Mr. Green has 
lived to see the consummation of his many years of in- 
tensely active and beneficial public service. Although 
no longer caring to hold official place, he wields an un- 
diminished influence. His presence on half a dozen 
commissions, on twenty boards of directors, and his 
membership in as many more clubs and societies attest 
his physical and mental activity at an age when most 
men think seriously of retiring. 

I found him, late one day, after he had passed several 
hours in attending to the large business interests still 
committed to his financial care. 



MAYOR GREEX. 29 

" Won't you tell me for my readers," I asked, when he 
had laid aside his pen and dropped into an easy chair, 
" some of the benefits of honesty in public life, you who 
had the distinction of typifying it in the Tweed Ring 
days ? " 

A BIT OF NEW YORK CITY HISTORY. 

A whimsical smile lighted up the ex-comptroller's face 
as he replied : " Your question implies a compliment 
that was not paid me by interviewers twenty-eight years 
ago. My course was not always referred to in those 
days as an illustration of honesty in public life. In fact, 
I was unsparingly criticised in many quarters." 

His remarks had reference to his service, at the time 
of the overthrow of the Tweed Ring, in rescuing the 
treasury of New York from the harpies who were prey- 
ing upon it. He found the city treasury empty, but suc- 
ceeded in raising the funds necessary to pay the school- 
teachers and others who were clamoring for their just 
dues. Then, in face of a clamor that would have 
deterred a less resolute man, he cut down the bills of all 
claimants to an honest figure, heedless alike of vilifica- 
tion and praise. Attempts were made to do him physical 
injury, and on one occasion an infernal machine was re- 
ceived at the office, sent, no doubt, with murderous in- 
tent. Mr. Green remained steadfast. 

" FROM RICH AND RURAL WORCESTER." 

Andrew H. Green was born at Green Hill, Worcester, 
Mass., the home of his ancestors for six gener?tions. 
This home he inherited, and occupies every summer for 
a brief period. He came to New York when a boy, and 
first did work in a mercantile capacity, and then studied 
law. He did not seek public place. 

But somehow public opinion fastened upon him as a 



30 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

man who could be trusted safely with great interests, and 
he was chosen to discharge important public duties, re- 
quiring absolute integrity, energy, and foresight. For 
twelve years he was the executive officer of the Park 
Commission, and was regarded almost as the creator of 
New York's magnificent park system. To his efforts, 
also, was largely due the establishment of the American 
Museum of Natural History, the Zoological Gardens, the 
Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Meteorological 
Observatory. His crowning work for the people of his 
adopted city was the formation of " Greater New York/' 
with an extent of territory adequate to any increase of 
population or of demand for commercial facilities for 
many years to come. 

NIAGARA STATE PARK, TOO. 

The creative genius of this many-sided man is shown 
also in his advocacy of the purchase of the Niagara's 
shore by the State of New York, to be used forever by 
the people as a pleasure ground, instead of permitting its 
beauties to be bartered for coin by greedy speculators. 
Daring as this conception was, challenging the opposition 
of vested interests at Niagara, and setting up a new 
function, almost, for the State government, it became an 
accomplished fact under the guiding hand of Mr. Green 
and his fellow-commissioners. The heritage of the 
people was redeemed by him. At a recent meeting of 
the Niagara Reservation Commission, a set of resolu- 
tions was engrossed, setting forth the splendid services 
of Mr. Green in this connection, and changing the name 
of Bath Island, just above the falls, to Green Island, in 
his honor. 

The Hudson River Bridge, another of his pet projects, 
he expects to live to see completed. In this connection 



MAYOR GREEN. 31 

he worked very earnestly to secure the needed permis- 
sion from both New Jersey and New York, and from the 
United States government, setting forth the argument 
that, if the limited territory of Long Island needs so 
many bridges, surely the territory behind New Jersey, 
that of the continent itself, with its teeming population 
of millions, needs one. 

HIS VIGOROUS OPINIONS. 

I asked his opinion of the average public official of to- 
day. 

" I can best answer that question," he said, " by stat- 
ing the environments which surround him. The people 
are running after strange gods, after money kings. 
Prominence has come to be a perquisite of wealth, not 
of high professional or industrial attainments. The man 
is most admired who makes the most millions in the few- 
est years." 

There was earnestness in the veteran's tone as he con- 
tinued : 

" It is unfortunate that such a perverted taste exists, 
for it exalts the conscienceless capitalist and casts down 
the champion of the people's rights. The popular 
method of getting rich is not to earn money legitimately, 
or even to create wealth by inventing money-making 
devices, but to secure franchises for far less than their 
value. Now, the official who grants a valuable franchise 
without proper compensation is as bad as the capitalist 
who seeks and receives it. I am well aware that my 
views on this subject are unpopular, that the thing is 
being done every day by persons who would feel highly 
indignant if you called their action by its right name. 
I believe, too, that a road which can be built for a mil- 
lion ought not to water its stock up to more than fifty 



32 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

millions, and then, by charging high rates for passengers 
and freight service, pay dividends on the whole amount, 
without making some return to the municipality. The 
way the street railway people are operating things now 
they could easily afford to pay a sum which would equal 
a very large part of the taxes of the city. They charge 
five cents for a ride that in Paris or Berlin costs the pas- 
senger one-half or two-thirds as much." 

Mr. Green strongly opposes the granting of the under- 
ground rapid transit franchise to any body of private 
capitalists. Taking down a copy of Lecky, he read to 
me the following extract, as setting forth his own views : 

" It is not the existence of inherited wealth, even on a 
very large scale, that is likely to shake seriously the 
respect for property ; it is the many examples which the 
conditions of modern society present of vast wealth ac- 
quired by shameful means, employed for shameful pur- 
poses, and exercising an altogether undue influence in 
society and in the state. 

" THE PROUD RECORD OF A USEFUL LIFE. 

" When triumphant robbery is found among the rich, 
subversive doctrines will grow among the poor. When 
democracy turns, as it often does, into a corrupt plutoc- 
racy, both national decadence and social revolution are 
being prepared. No one who peruses modern socialist 
literature, no one who observes the current of feeling 
among the masses in the great towns, can fail to perceive 
their deep, growing, and not unreasonable sense of the 
profound injustices of life." 

One cannot, indeed, talk long with Andrew H. Green 
without receiving distinctly clear impressions of the 
value of sterling integrity as an aid to success. Here is 
a man who has built up a character while others have 



MAYOR GREEK. 33 

been content to pile up fortunes. He watched his 
friends acquire millions, while he worked for his city 
and his State with such conspicuous ability that he will 
leave no less than six grand monuments to his memory 
— the modern New York school-house, Central Park, the 
American Museum of Natural History, the Niagara 
State Park, Riverside Park, and Greater New York. 
Who shall say that he has not succeeded far better in 
the race of life, in the prize of an approving conscience, 
in the affectionate regard of his fellowmen, than some of 
the great millionaires who control vast wealth and vast 
properties ? 



VI. 



DOWNRIGHT HAKD SENSE AS TO THE WAY 
TO MAKE MONEY : 

THE STORY OF A CONNECTICUT CLOCK PEDDLER 
WHO BUILT A TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILWAY. 



" I never worry about to-morrow/' said the late Collis 
P. Huntington to me when I called upon him. " To- 
morrow will take care of itself ; not yesterday. To-day 
is the all-important issue. Yes, that is my advice to 
young men — to appreciate the value of to-day. It has 
been my rule through life — not to look forward, for the 
future is a blank. We do not know what it will reveal. 
It may alter the general plan of your life." 
" Then you have drifted with the tide ? " 
" I have never gone against it, nor worried while my 
schemes were maturing. A farmer sows a field of wheat. 
Now what is the sense of worrying over the crop ? It 
merely saps his energy. The wheat again requires his 
attention at the time of harvest. 

ON HIS FATHER'S* FARM. 

" When I was a boy on my father's farm in Connecti- 
cut I utilized every moment, and worked hard, for there 
was plenty to do. But if I had any spare time and the 
opportunity offered, I did chores for the neighbors. For 

34 



a r. hunting ton: 35 

instance, I picked apples, or did anything that added to 
my savings. I never wanted for anything that I needed ; 
I always got it. But very many buy things they do not 
need. In consequence, when I came to New York, in 1830, 
I had quite a sum of money ; the outcome of my savings, 
judicious investments, and little trades about the neigh- 
borhood. 

" The great secret of success is laying by a nest-egg, 
and adding to your little store, — never spending more 
than you make, and being strictly economical. Again, a 
young man should command what he is worth, and 
should always keep his eyes open to better himself. I 
have been my own master since I was sixteen years old. 

GOING TO COLLEGE. 

" Certain classes of young men," continued Mr. Hunt- 
ington, looking around his library, lined with books, 
"make a mistake in going to college. They lose the 
most receptive and important part of their lives — from 
seventeen to twenty-one — in filling themselves with 
knowledge of other men's deeds that can be of no practi- 
cal use to the commercial world. They are graduated 
with exalted ideas ; and when it comes to earning bread 
and butter they are at a loss to know which way to turn, 
and most frequently commence with a small sum, minus 
the experience that would have fitted them for some- 
thing better. 

millionaire's lives not inspiring. 
" I do not think the life of one who has accumulated a 
hundred millions, more or less, although interesting, is 
inspiring. It dazzles and bewilders the struggling lad, 
or young man. It may be inspiring for the time being, 
but the inspiration wears otf. No one can follow in the 



36 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

footsteps of another. He must work out his own destiny. 
But if he observes the rules of honesty, integrity, and 
economy, and fears God, he has just as good a chance as 
any man that may be cited. 

don't watch the clock. 
" I have had a hundred thousand people in my employ 
in different parts of the world, at the same time, and 
have had pretty good opportunities to study mankind. 
In my mercantile life I have noticed the man who ar- 
rives at his post on time, and not one minute later, and 
who leaves on the minute, and not one second later. He 
does no more than he has to do, and, naturally, does not 
do that well, for he gauges himself. Then there is the 
man who arrives ahead of time, and works late if there 
is anything to be finished. The latter takes an interest 
in his work, and is anxious to be advanced. We wonder 
what we should do if he should decide to leave, for it is 
recognized that it would be difficult to fill his place. 
But in regard to the man who watches the clock we are 
indifferent, and would probably never miss him. 

SAVING MONET. 

" I have known young men in my employ to come to me 
and ask to be advanced. If I knew the applicant to be 
worthy, and I could not comply with his request, I have 
advised him to start out for himself, and have loaned him 
five or six hundred dollars to establish himself, but never 
to a man who had not saved, for that is money thrown 
away. 

" In regard to myself, — I live within my means. I 
have never, in the course of my life, overstepped that 
line. 



C. P. HUNTINGTON'. 37 



ADVICE THROWN AWAY. 

" Advice is thrown away on a boy or young man who 
considers it beneath him to work at anything which 
hardens the hands or soils the garments, but who prefers 
a clerkship in a store or office at starvation wages. Good 
clothes should not be worn at the expense of a career. 
To the man who is not afraid of downright hard work I 
would suggest frugality, investing surplus earnings, if 
only a dime a day, in a savings bank, and reading useful 
books during leisure hours. 

" Yet there is another principle that must be obeyed 
— -business before pleas lire. There was to be an impor- 
tant meeting here to-night, but one of the gentlemen said 
he could not attend, because he said he had to go to an 
entertainment with his wife. I have never allowed any 
social obligation to interfere with a business engage- 
ment. 

" As to the chances to-day, they are as good as ever 
before, and better. You cannot point the way for another. 
If he is in earnest, and adheres to the principles T have 
stated, he will strike the road for himself, and reap his 
rewards. 

" One more thing I will name : A young man does not 
want to bother over what rumor has to say about him. 
I have never cared a cent what any human being said or 
thought about my actions, so long as I was satisfied. It 
is my idea that a man's business should be his first 
thought and care. It has always been mine. In conse- 
quence, I suppose there are a great many things about 
which I know less than the average man, but, on the 
other hand, I am very certain that there is nobody who 
knows more about my business than I do. I never leave 
my game to play with another fellow at the other fel- 



38 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

low's game, as the saying is. Lots of sorrow lias been 
caused in this world by men meddling at a game regard- 
ing which they knew nothing, with fellows who did. 

EARLY MARRIAGE. 

" False pride is an enormous obstacle to business suc- 
cess. I know young men in ISTew York City who would 
not carry a trunk along Fifth avenue if you would give 
them all the frontage they could pass, simply because 
they would be afraid that they would meet some girl that 
they know. 

" I heartily believe in a young man marrying early in 
life, if he can marry a seDsible girl who is willing to do 
her own work, — cooking and ironing, — and beautiful 
work it is, too, if she will only think so. If she will help 
him a young man can live cheaper that way than he 
can board ; but if the young lady is marrying simply be- 
cause she hopes to find a life of comparative ease I think 
it would be much better for the young man to stay 
single." 

HIS FIRST BUSINESS VENTURE. 

Regarding his first business venture, Mr. Huntington 
said: 

"I guess I didn't make my 'first thousand/ about 
which so many men have told. I had n't accumulated 
anything like that amount when I made the venture 
which brought me so far above the one-thousand-dollar 
mark that I imagined myself in comparative affluence. 
You know I had gone to New York when I was sixteen 
years of age, and I had gradually accumulated a varie- 
gated assortment of property which, as I look back upon 
it, could not have been of much value. However, I suc- 
ceeded in trading off those holdings for a lot of one thou- 
sand clocks. I sent them out in consignments of varying 



C. P. HUNTINGTON. 39 

sizes to the small towns along the route of the Erie canal, 
and then in about a week I started to follow them. 
Well, I stopped at every town, and in the end I sold my 
entire lot of clocks at five dollars each, and practically 
netted five thousand dollars." 

HIS START FOR CALIFORNIA. 

Soon after his successful investment in clocks he en- 
gaged in mercantile business with his brother, Solon 
Huntington, at Oneonta, New York. He was engaged in 
this and similar pursuits for some years, learning, as he 
said, to keep promises so scrupulously as to enlist the 
confidence of the public, and mastering the harder task 
of being agreeable to even the most obnoxious customers. 
When the gold fever broke out in 1849, the young man 
of twenty -eight immediately started, by way of the Isth- 
mus of Panama, for California, where he engaged in the 
hardware business. That same hardware firm is still in 
existence, and Mr. Huntington retained his interest in it 
all his life. Mr. Huntington never had the gold fever 
himself, but he realized instinctively from a mercantile 
standpoint the possible business opportunities of Cali- 
fornia. 

HIS CAREER AS A RAILWAY BUILDER. 

When the Pacific Kail way project was brought up, 
Mr. Huntington was one of the first to see its advantages 
and its practicability. His partner, Mark Hopkins, was 
thoroughly in sympathy with the idea, and the two men 
joined with Leland Stanford and Charles Crocker, form- 
ing an association which furnished the necessary funds 
for a survey over the mountains. This survey was all 
that was needed to demonstrate the feasibility of the 
plan for establishing communication between the Mis- 



40 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

souri and the Pacific coast ; and the four men mentioned 
formed the Central Pacific Railway Company. 

History has recorded the seemingly insurmountable 
obstacles which were overcome in constructing the road, 
which was finally opened in 1869. It had scarcely been 
completed when Huntington plunged into the building 
of the Southern Pacific. 

Then followed the construction of the other roads — 
the Chesapeake and Ohio, the Chesapeake and South- 
western, the Kentucky Central, the Elizabethtown, Lex- 
ington and Big Sandy, and the Louisville, New Orleans 
and Texas, until Huntington could ride on his own rail- 
road tracks from the Atlantic to the Pacific. 

Mr. Huntington's later years were quite as full of ac- 
tivity as his youth. His interests on the high seas were 
very extensive, and included the Pacific mail steamers, 
which represented an outlay of millions of dollars. Then, 
too, he was almost the sole owner of the great ship-build- 
ing plant at Newport News, Virginia. Pour United 
States battleships and one monitor were being built there, 
and more than five thousand men were employed in the 
work. 



VII. 

BUILDING UP A GREAT SHIPPING HOUSE. 



When I conversed with William R. Grace, ex-Mayor 
of New York, and asked him the secret of success, he 
replied, epigrammatically : 

" Stick-to-it-iveness." 

To-day the ships of W. R. Grace and Company are 
known all over the globe. They do the greater part of 
the carrying trade between the United States and the 
west coast of South America. The complete revolution 
of what might be called the American intercontinental 
trade is due to the brain and daring of this remarkable 
man. I say " daring," because many of the enterprises 
in which he has engaged have been dazzling in their 
financial magnitude, and have involved the exercise of 
almost incredible courage. But it is a characteristic of 
Mr. Grace that nothing is too big for him to undertake, 
so long as he has faith in it, and his faith is not lightly 
won. Results of immeasurable consequence to the whole 
commercial world have been attained by a man who, 
fifty-three years ago, landed in New York without money 
and friends, and who, at that time, little dreamed that 
he would be twice mayor of the leading city of the West- 
ern Hemisphere, although, even then, his ambitions 
seem to have been almost Napoleonic. Some men acquire 
large fortunes in extremely narrow channels, and are 
little known, and of little benefit to the world at large. 
Mr. Grace was actuated by the ambition not only to ac- 

41 



42 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

quire wealth, but to be a great, broad influence in the 
commercial world. He has won both, and to-day is the 
most influential figure in the commerce between the two 
American continents. 

To meet Mr. Grace on Broadway strolling (he never 
seems in a hurry) down to his office one would imagine 
him a comfortable country-town merchant pursuing the 
even tenor of his way ; but just run counter to him, and 
one is most mightily undeceived. He bristles at every 
point with energy, enterprise, and quick antagonism. He 
is terse, epigrammatic, and caustic. 

HE TOLD HIS STORY TO HELP OTHERS. 

Mr. Grace is extremely averse to talking of himself, 
but when he was convinced that what he could say might 
be a stimulant in the right direction for some boy, he 
consented to give a brief account of some of his experi- 
ences. 

The ex-mayor was seen at the offices of W. E,. Grace 
and Company, which occupy nearly all of the old Cotton 
Exchange Building, facing Hanover Square. The office 
rooms are filled with manly -looking clerks, bustling about 
in their shirt sleeves, and they are littered with samples 
of all sorts of things, from all sorts of places throughout 
the habitable world. 

Mr. Grace is sixty-seven years old, and comes of a 
highly respectable Queens County (Ireland) family. His 
father lost a part of his fortune in Venezuela during the 
early part of this century, and so the lad, like many 
American boys, while of first-class antecedents, started 
with an empty purse. 

AMBITIOUS AS A BOY. 

As a boy Mr. Grace was very ambitious, and ran away 
from home when only fourteen. He came over here and 



MAYOR GRACE. 43 

knocked about for awhile, doing anything he could. He 
recollects at one time, during his first stay in the United 
States, boarding with a shoemaker, working for a printer, 
and in fact turning his hand to anything that was reputa- 
ble, and at all remunerative. The possibilities of a 
serious career did not weigh very heavily upon him at 
that time, but he was greatly impressed with the oppor- 
tunities that were offered by America to a young man 
willing to grasp them. After a stay of a few years young 
Grace returned to the Old Country, and through the 
financial aid of his sister he then went to Callao, Peru. 

An incident that happened within a few days after his 
arrival in Peru perhaps helped a great deal to form his 
principles. There was an argument in progress one 
evening between some American and English sailors. 
Sailors' arguments, at that time, were usually wound up 
with fisticuffs. The Americans seemed to be getting the 
worst of it, and Grace turned to and helped them, with 
the result that they carried the day. But when he got 
to his room that night he made up his mind firmly that 
it was not to mix in sailors' brawls that he had come to 
Peru, nor to waste his time as he saw the majority of the 
foreign residents doing ; and this, he says, formed one of 
the principles he has always followed since, — that is, 
stick-to-it-iveness, industry, strict attention to the main 
object in life. 

Almost anybody who followed these principles in Peru 
at the time he went there, so he says, would have been 
successful, because opportunities were numerous, and it 
needed only a man who could catch an opportunity, 
quickly dispose of it, and be on the lookout all the time 
for others. 

Shortly after young Grace reached Peru he obtained 
a clerkship in a shipping house of fair standing, and 



44 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

within a short time became a member of the firm, and later 
he secured control of it. From this house the firm of 
Grace Brothers and Company finally grew, attaining one 
of the most prominent positions of any of the houses, of 
whatever nationality, in Peru. Mr. Grace spent a great 
deal of his time travelling in the interests of his business, 
to which he was always very attentive, and finally, when 
his position in Peru was assured, he concluded to make 
New York the base of his operations, and to enter into 
the trade from the standpoint of a merchant at this end 
as well as at the other. The business here was established 
in 1865. As it grew Mr. Grace associated his brothers, 
Michael P. Grace and John W. Grace, in it with himself. 
A branch house was opened in London, another in San 
Francisco, the business in Callao was extended to the 
capital, Lima, and other branches were opened in Chili, 
where the house now has three establishments, — at Val- 
paraiso, Santiago, and Concepcion. The firm has played 
a very prominent part in the business of these countries. 

MR. GRACE'S YOUNG MEN. 

Mr. Grace is a firm believer in keeping abreast of the 
times, and he says that it is one of his fixed ideas to sur- 
round himself with bright, intelligent, and industrious 
young men, with whom he always confers freely, and 
whose ideas are largely influential in forming his own. 
He most cordially receives suggestions, and uses his own 
judgment in accepting or rejecting. He has some fixed 
rules and maxims, which he quotes occasionally for the 
benefit of his aides. One of these is : " When you don't 
know what to do don't do anything." 

Following his principle of keeping abreast of the times, 
Mr. Grace had his business incorporated a few years ago, 
that there might be no question of its continuity. 



MA FOR GRACE. 45 

Mr. Grace was an early believer in the possibilities of 
long-voyage steamer trade, and established the pioneer 
direct steam service from the United States to the west 
coast of South America. The full voyage of one of these 
ships is equal to the circumference of the world, and all 
of the ships engaged in this service were especially built 
for it. 

Mr. Grace is a natural organizer, and interested in a 
great many enterprises. He is the president of the In- 
gersoll-Sergeant Drill Company, a concern which has been 
foremost in the application of compressed air. He also 
organized the Nicaragua Canal Syndicate, a body of New 
York capitalists, which obtained a concession for the con- 
struction of the canal at a time when European efforts 
in that direction seemed probable, and thus saved the 
waterway to the United States. Mr. Grace is a trustee 
of the New York Life Insurance Company, of the Termi- 
nal Warehouse Company, the Central and South Ameri- 
can Telegraph Company, and is a director of the Lincoln 
bank and the City Trust Company. He is also president 
of the Sevilla Home for Children. 

THE GRACE INSTITUTE. 

In later years Mr. Grace has relieved himself to some 
extent from the management of his vast business inter- 
ests and has found time to devote his abilities to a prac- 
tical philanthropic purpose. He and his brother, Michael 
P. Grace, established " Grace Institute " in memory of 
their father and mother, and in gratitude to New York, 
— the scene of their early start for success. The object 
of the Institute is to afford protection, instruction, and 
assistance to youitg women. They are taught in the 
domestic arts and sciences — cooking, laundry work, 
sewing and dressmaking ; and in stenography, typewrit- 



46 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

ing, and other occupations and trades in which women 
may be employed. Five hundred graduates of the In- 
stitute are annually put in the way of earning their living. 

"used up with education." 

Like most successful men, Mr. Grace has a vivid ap- 
preciation of a bright and suggestive thought, whatsoever 
the source. He relates, in this connection, an incident 
of his youthful career in Peru, which tended to improve 
his knowledge of human nature. He had just entered 
into a contract of partnership, when a big Irishman 
named Jack McCarthy, respected and well-to-do, who 
had seen Grace and liked him, said to him : 

"Here, Grace, I have been watching you ever since 
you came here, and I think you are of the right sort. 
Now I have taken a lease of this store next to the post- 
office, and I '11 put in a business there thirty thousand 
dollars cash against your brains." 

Of course, being pledged in another direction, he could 
not do anything with McCarthy, but he recommended a 
friend with whom both were acquainted. McCarthy's 
reply was so full of pith that it has always remained 
with Mr. Grace. The man he spoke of was a very bright 
fellow whom he knew very well, of very good education 
and spotless character. His Irish friend listened to his 
plea for this young man, and then rendering his decision 
in the sentence — " Och, he 's all used up with educa- 
tion," — he made a description of the man which fitted 
exactly, and the soundness of which Mr. Grace always 
remembered. 

It is almost needless to remind the reader that Mr. 
Grace was elected Mayor of New York in 1880, and again 
in 1884, serving two terms which were noted for their 
strength, vigor, and fearlessness. 



VIII. 

THE FINANCIAL VALUE OF "A GOOD 
BUSINESS STANDING." 



" Success in Wall street is attained, as a rule, the 
same way as elsewhere. There is no royal road to 
wealth, even in speculation. Popular fancy pictures 
men as growing rich in a day in dealing in stocks. 
They do so rarely, and they grow poor in an hour, — 
often. 

" No, Wall street is no place for the man who expects 
to amass a fortune in a hurry, although he is much in 
evidence here. He brings his money with him with the 
expectation of having it multiplied immediately ; he has 
his ups and downs, and, after a while, departs, almost 
invariably without his money. He is greatly surprised 
and disappointed, of course, and often thinks he is an 
unfortunate exception to the general rule ; whereas, his 
experience is in strict conformity with the rule, — a rule 
which, in the long run, is as inevitable in its working as 
a natural law. There is nothing in it to wonder at. The 
outsider in Wall street is a man who is embarking in 
a business without knowing its first principles. He has 
plenty of advice, of course ; but it is a rare thing to suc- 
ceed on advice alone. To be successful in Wall street, 
as elsewhere, you must know your business." 

Nobody knows the business of buying and selling 

47 



48 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

stocks better than Stephen V. White, familiarly called 
" Deacon " White, because of his activity and promi- 
nence in Plymouth Church, Brooklyn, particularly dur- 
ing the pastorate of Henry Ward Beecher, who was his 
intimate friend. When ushered into Mr. White's office 
I was greeted with a handshake by a small, elderly man, 
with a rather rotund figure, a round face that is expres- 
sive of both determination and geniality, and eyes that 
look out very sharply from behind a pair of old-fashioned 
spectacles. 

CHARACTER AND COMPREHENSION AS FOUNDATION 

STONES. 

"To succeed, you must know your business," Mr. 
White repeated, " and to learn any business worth know- 
ing takes time. It is a great mistake to be in a hurry 
to get rich ; the only chance a young man has in Wall 
street he gets by stepping upon the lower rounds of the 
ladder and mounting slowly upon his increasing knowl- 
edge and experience. If he gets a conservative commis- 
sion business firmly established, and has sufficient brains 
to make a careful and scientific study of the world-wide 
conditions that affect stock values, he is, perhaps, in a 
position for ambitious efforts in finance, but he must 
first have something solid upon which to stand." 

Mr. White's words had behind them the authority of 
long experience and much success. But more forcible 
than mere words, as an illustration of what brings suc- 
cess in Wall street and elsewhere, is his remarkable 
career. When, in 1865, he came from Des Moines, Iowa, 
where he had been practising law for several years, and 
entered Wall street as a member of the firm of Marvin 
and White, he at once began to build a business foun- 
dation, using, as his chief materials, conservatism, good 



"DEACON" WHITE. 49 

judgment, and, above all, the strictest fair dealing in all 
transactions. There was nothing Napoleonic about his 
operations. The firm, of which he became the sole mem- 
ber in 1867, moved along on reasonably safe lines, and 
prospered, weathering many a Wall street tempest that 
wrecked a great number of less stable barks. In 1882, 
when the firm name became Stephen V. White and Com- 
pany, it had become a power in Wall street. Its opera- 
tions were extensive, and upon each one of them Mr. 
White brought to bear a very close analysis of all the 
influences that were affecting, or by any possibility could 
affect, the situation. This survey of the field was of 
necessity a very wide one. It began with the diversified 
influences in Wall street itself and extended to com- 
mercial and agricultural and political conditions the world 
over ; and when the time came to act few financiers were 
as daring as " Deacon " White. 

Once he went too far. Upon this occasion Mr. White's 
study of the conditions was just as careful as it ever had 
been. He weighed the probabilities, and they were in 
his favor, so he acted with his accustomed boldness. 

" No man is infallible," he remarked, in commenting 
upon this important episode in his career. " An utterly 
unforeseen combination of men and circumstances arose 
against me, and I was forced under." 

HIS SHEET ANCHOR IN A FINANCIAL STORM. 

His splendid fortune was swept away, and he was 
burdened with a load of debt that would have hampered 
most men for life. Few financiers would have recovered 
their position after so disastrous a blow, but Mr. White, 
with his money gone, had much left. He had that solid 
foundation of credit which he had spent so many years 
in building. The confidence of the business world en- 



50 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

abled him to start anew. Within a month after his fail- 
ure he had paid fifty thousand dollars of his debts, and 
within a couple of years had settled them, with interest, 
to the last cent. 

" Yes, it was my credit that lifted me out of that dif- 
ficulty," he said to me. " Good business standing is 
always a very valuable asset, not only for itself, but also 
for what it means, namely : fair dealing, good methods, 
and sound judgment, which, coupled with enterprise and 
a thorough knowledge of the business, are the essentials 
of commercial success. Without absolute integrity a 
man may make money for a while and appear to be suc- 
cessful, but he is, at best, a clever fool, for his policy is 
one which is sure to be disastrous to him in the long run 
and bring him failure in the end. 

HIS BOYHOOD ON THE FARM. 

" It is a good thing for a young man to have passed 
his boyhood on a farm, and if he makes his way with 
nothing at the outset of his career but his own brains 
and character and will his satisfaction through life will 
be the greater. I know this from my own personal ex- 
perience. My father moved from North Carolina during 
the 'Nat Turner rising' in 1831, because he did n't ap- 
prove of slavery, and we travelled — I was about forty 
days old then — by wagon over the mountains of Ten- 
nessee, and through the wild regions of Kentucky and 
other States, until we finally reached Illinois. We set- 
tled in a log cabin in a clearing in a virgin forest, about 
six miles from the junction of the Illinois and Missis- 
sippi Rivers. It was there I passed ray boyhood, doing 
a great deal of hard work. When I made up my mind 
to go to Knox College I began to teach school to provide 
the necessary funds ; and, when graduated, went down 



"DEACON" WHITE. 51 

to St. Louis to study law, and supported myself by work- 
ing as a reporter on the ' Globe-Democrat.' I was ad- 
mitted to the bar in 1856, and the following month hung 
out my shingle in Des Moines, Iowa. In 1861 I success- 
fully defended the only treason case ever tried in that 
State ; and during the long illness of the United States 
district attorney of Iowa I conducted all of the govern- 
ment's civil and criminal cases. While I gave up the 
active practice of law when I ca*me to New York, in 
1865, I served a term in Congress in the ' eighties,' rep- 
resenting a district in Brooklyn, where I have lived for 
many years. When I go home I like to forget all about 
business and give myself up wholly to my family. Liter- 
ature and languages give me much pleasure, and once 
upon a time I translated a book from the Latin. In my 
home I have one of the largest private telescopes in the 
country, and when surveying through it the immensity 
and glory of the heavens all financial deals seem very 
small." 



IX. 



THE STORY OF GOVERNOR ELOWER OF 
NEW YORK. 



Garfield drove oxen, taught school, and became 
President : Roswell P. Flower drove oxen, taught school, 
and became Governor of the Empire State. I once asked 
the governor if there were not some subtle connection 
between these two extremes of occupation, and he told 
me that he did n't know of any, unless it lay in the fact 
that the same qualities are necessary in both. He 
thought that the quality of patience acquired in driving, 
leading, or coaxing oxen is absolutely necessary in the 
higher pursuit of school teaching, and that any man who 
succeeds in both these humble but useful occupations 
can do almost anything. It is a long distance between 
the farm and the Capitol, and it took Governor Flower 
nearly half a century to traverse it. No doubt he could 
have done so in much less time had the route been direct, 
or had he started out with a prearranged plan to gain 
political preferment. On the contrary, his ambition was 
a successful business career, and he only went into poli- 
tics through a sense of duty as a citizen. Many years 
previous to 1892, when he was elected governor, he was 
a well-recognized power in the finances of the nation, and 
had won admission to the inner circles of Wall street. 
There were, at that time, few important movements in 

52 



GOVERNOR FLOWER. 53 

stocks in which the great house of Flower and Company 
did not have a hand. 

A MAN OF AFFAIRS. 

The governorship of his State is very justly regarded 
as a stepping-stone to higher things politically, or to en- 
hanced business opportunities. When Governor Flower 
took the office he neither hoped for nor expected either. 
On the contrary, he doubtless made sacrifices in bowing 
to the will of the people. His business affairs, when he 
was called to Albany, were of the first magnitude, and 
were of such character as to require his personal at- 
tention, but without a moment's hesitation he went 
to the front and took command, simply because he thought 
it his duty as a citizen to do so. And here the mar- 
vellous side of the man's character is shown. For years 
he had been a recognized leader in Wall street ; every 
important movement in certain lines of stocks was be- 
lieved to be directed from "Exchange court ; " yet, when 
he took up the reins of civil government, he never for 
an instant relinquished the leadership of the " street," 
and I have yet to learn of the complaint ever having 
been made that he was not at his desk at the Capitol 
when the duties of the office required him to be here. In 
fact, Mr. Flower performed the hazardous feat of riding 
two very untraceable steeds at once, namely, Govern- 
ment and Finance, — and he mastered them, too. 

HUMBLE BEGINNINGS. 

Eoswell Pettibone Flower was born in 1835, at Ther- 
esa, Jefferson County, New York, and was the first gov- 
ernor elected from that county, and the second from that 
part of the State. His father, Nathan Monroe Flower, 
whose ancestors settled in Connecticut in 1696, was 



54 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

born in Greene County, New York, and followed the 
wool carding and cloth dressing trade, in Coopers- 
town. He married Mary Ann Boyle, and established 
himself in what was then a wilderness in the north- 
ern part of the State. Eoswell was the sixth of 
nine children, and was only eight years old when his 
father died. His first taste of hard work was that of 
assisting his mother in the business, which she con- 
ducted for a couple of years after his father's death. The 
family had two farms eight miles apart, which were 
worked by the boys. 

" The first important lessons of life which I learned,' 7 
said the ex-governor, " were independence, self-reliance, 
and fair play ; also a proper sense of humility." 

It is said that young Flower was extremely sensitive 
on the point of his clothes, which, owing to the necessi- 
tous condition of the family, had seen previous service 
on the forms of his elder brothers. 

The boy's first regularly paid position was with his 
brother-in-law, Silas L. George, a merchant, where he re- 
ceived five dollars a month and board, which was con- 
sidered quite princely. Eoswell was sixteen when he was 
graduated from the high school. For spending money 
he used to saw and carry wood, the pay for which was 
twenty-five cents for half a cord. Almost every occupa- 
tion that the country boy is heir to was known to the 
embryonic governor and Wall-street magnate. He had 
his turn at working in the hayfield, tending the little 
country store, and driving a yoke of stags to tread out 
the clay in a brick yard, for which he received something 
like a dollar and a half a week. 

" I did n't mind the work at all," said the ex-governor, 
once; " I was strong and energetic, and took an interest 
in everything I did. I could see that the country offered 



GOVERNOR FLOWER. 55 

possibilities for young men of education, and I devoted 
all my spare time to preparation for the greater world 
which I was determined to encounter sooner or later." 

" What were the chief formative influences of your 
life ? " 

" My mother taught us that there was nothing so con- 
temptible as a coward, nor so mean as a liar. That, with 
her, seemed to cover everything, and when one reflects, 
courage and truthfulness do seem to include the essential 
virtues." 



AS VILLAGE SCHOOLMASTER. 

The next step of progress in the career of young 
Flower was in the village school, where he taught and 
" boarded round " in the old Yankee fashion. It would 
seem, from reports, that the teacher of this school ruled 
his pupils more by muscular than by moral suasion. He 
engaged in a general wrestling match, and easily threw 
one after another of the bigger boys. In this way he 
vanquished all but one, a surly youth, who declined to 
recognize the authority of the young pedagogue. This 
boy had an aversion to pronouncing the syllables of 
words separately as he spelled them. Flower insisted 
upon the syllables being pronounced separately; but 
wishing to avoid a personal encounter with the burly 
pupil, he engaged the services of another lad, and so, by 
a combination of brawn and tact subjugated the pug- 
nacious young giant. " When I was eighteen," said Mr. 
Flower, " I was engaged to go to Philadelphia, as clerk 
in a general store, but had only been there two months 
when my employer failed, and I returned home and 
worked on my mother's farm, receiving a ton of hay for 
working nine days, and I had to do as much work as any 
one of the other eleven men in the field. Until I was fif- 



56 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

teen I rarely wore shoes in the summer ; and was very 
seldom without the country boy's regular supply of cuts 
and stone-bruises." 

CLERK AND POSTMASTER. 

In 1853 Mr. Flower, after brief experience as a clerk 
in a hardware store, obtained the appointment of deputy 
postmaster at Watertown, at fifty dollars a month and 
board, and remained in the position six years. " As soon 
as I got this situation," said the ex-governor, " I deter- 
mined to save all the money I could, as I saw that no 
matter how shrewd a man may be it is necessary for him 
to have some money in his pocket when he leaves his 
own town to battle with the world. I was very proud of 
the first fifty dollars I saved, and invested it in a beauti- 
ful gold watch, because I could not spend the watch, and 
ready money would have been a constant temptation. 
Shortly afterwards a young man who was going West 
made me an offer of fifty-three dollars for the watch, and 
my mercantile instinct led me to part with it. He gave 
me his note for that amount, and the note to-day forms 
part of a collection of papers of similar character, which 
every man of affairs is more or less bound to acquire, 
and which I have at home in my desk." 

BUSINESS VENTURES. 

When Mr. Flower left the post-office he took the 
thousand dollars which he had saved and engaged in the 
jewelry business, the firm name being Hitchcock and 
Flower. After two years he bought his partner out, and 
continued in the business until 1869. During his sojourn 
in Watertown, young Flower was a member of the fire 
department. In 1859 he married Sarah M. Woodruff, a 
daughter of JSTorris M. Woodruff, of Watertown. . 

" To what do you attribute your success ? " I asked. 



GOVERNOR FLOWER. 57 

" I have always been a reader of useful books, and a 
good listener. One can absorb useful information from 
any crowd that he may chance to mingle with. It may 
be of either a warning or an inspiring character, but it is 
still useful. When I was in the post-office, in Water- 
town, I read Blackstone's and Kent's i Commentaries/ 
for the purpose of education. These books have been of 
immense advantage to me." 

In 18G6 Henry Keep, a famous railroad magnate, and 
a brother-in-law of Mrs. Flower, invited Mr. Flower to 
come to New York, and introduced him to the business 
world of the metropolis, and particularly of Wall street. 
This was done by Mr. Keep with a view to preparing 
Mr. Flower to assist Mrs. Keep in the management of 
her large property in case of his death. When Mr. 
Flower took charge of his sister-in-law's estate it was 
valued at $1,000,000. In a few years the value had 
quadrupled. 

A WALL STREET CAREER. 

When I asked the ex-governor how he made his money 
in Wall street, he replied : " By investing in properties, 
which, upon the most rigid examination, showed not only 
possibilities, but very strong probabilities, of development 
under expert management, and by never putting money 
into any enterprise unless I was accorded a voice in its 
management proportionate to the investment. In inter- 
esting one's self in railroads one should not only acquire 
a knowledge of the condition of the property, and of the 
character of the men managing it, but should try to fore- 
shadow the trend of traffic in relation to it." 

NEVER UNLOADED ON HIS FRIENDS. 

Mr. Flower had the reputation in Wall street of never 
" unloading on his friends." When he advises any one 



58 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

to invest in a property one might be sure that the ex- 
governor had backed his opinion with his own money, 
and when losses were sustained in such cases he was 
generally found to be the heaviest loser. In 1872 Mr. 
Flower was compelled, through ill-health, to sever his 
connection with the firm of Benedict, Flower and Com- 
pany, and devote himself to the management of his 
sister-in-law's estate. It was not, however, easy to throw 
off the fascination of the " street." There is an old 
saying, " Once a Wall street man, always a Wall street 
man ; " so it proved in the case of Mr. Flower. For a 
long time now, the firm of Flower and Company, in 
which A. E. Flower and J. B. Flower, brothers, and 
Frederick S. Flower, a nephew of the head of the house, 
are partners, has dominated Wall street. In 1890 B. P. 
Flower changed from an active to a special partner in 
the house. 

HIS POLITICAL CAREER. 

Mr. Flower cast his first vote for Buchanan, and was 
always an unswerving Democrat. He was never a believer 
in the " independent " voter. 

" What is the element of success in politics ? " I asked 
the ex-governor. 

" Strict partisanship," he replied. " A man should 
either rise or fall with his party. On the shoulders of 
the party must be placed the absolute responsibility of 
the administration, no division, no compromise. Every 
young American must, if he expects to succeed in politics, 
familiarize himself with the national system, the State, 
county, and ward systems, right down to his own district. 
He must be thoroughly familiar with the working of the 
political machinery. Imagination is a great thing for a 
statesman, but it must be combined with practical knowl- 
edge to be effective." 



GOVERNOR FLOWER. 59 

In 1881 Mr. Flower defeated William Waldorf Astor 
in the race for Congress, in the eleventh district, succeed- 
ing Levi P. Morton, who had resigned to become minister 
to France. He took a prominent part in the Forty- 
seventh Congress as a member of the committee on bank- 
ing. Here he found it necessary to inform himself upon 
the theories of finance, which he found he had overlooked 
in his practical experience. In 1882 he refused a re- 
nomination for Congress, having stated in his first cam- 
paign that he would not accept a second term. 

" My success in Congress," said he, " was due to the 
fact that I always tried to learn more about the work of 
the committee on which I chanced to be placed than any 
other member." When he was a member of the subway 
commission a discussion arose between that body and 
the Western Union Telegraph Company as to the consti- 
tutionality of laws ordering the wires under ground. 
One day Jay Gould called upon him, and suggested that 
their lawyers meet and submit briefs to Judge Blatch- 
ford. Mr. Flower replied : " I am not so much concerned 
about the constitutionality of the law. Your company 
has been laying cables without a permit, and if I can find 
out who ordered them to lay those cables on Sunday I 
shall proceed against him for disobeying the law, and if 
you are the man I shall take great pleasure in putting 
you in jail." 

Mr. Flower was elected to the governorship in 1802, 
and his career in that office, and subsequently, is so well 
known as to make any allusion to it superfluous. 

He had sound, practical views of charity, and believed 
in putting money out where he could himself see it do 
good. Many people in the section of the State where he 
was brought up have benefited by his munificence. At a 
considerable expense he had the little church at Theresa, 



60 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

in which his parents used to worship, rebuilt into a 
beautiful little structure. He also gave to St. Thomas's 
Church in New York fifty thousand dollars, with which 
to build a four-story building, St. Thomas's House to be 
used for parish work, a Sunday-school, a diet kitchen, a 
class in needlework for young girls, and a club room and 
library for young men. The Flower Hospital also owes 
its existence to the ex-governor's generosity. 




HENRY CLEWS. 



X. 



TO COUNTRY BOYS : HOW TO GET ALONG IN 
A GREAT CITY. 



Henry Clews was an office boy, messenger, and errand 
boy in New York, working in a Broad-street office, at a 
point within two blocks of his present great banking 
house. As a stock broker he has made millions. He 
has, at my request, in the following article, given points 
to country boys who desire to succeed in a great city. 

In nearly every one, says Mr. Clews, of the ten million 
families more or less of the United States outside of the 
great cities, there is at least one bright lad who longs for 
a city career. His father's farm, or store, or workshop, 
appears to him too narrow for the exercise of the talents 
which he believes are stirring within him, and which he 
desires, with all the impulses of youth, to put into activ- 
ity in the largest possible fields. These and similar 
ambitions come into play in the minds of boys of from 
twelve to sixteen years. What steps shall these young 
people take to carry out their plans successfully, to be- 
come rich as merchants, or eminent as lawyers, or physi- 
cians, or clergymen ; or to make great fortunes as stock 
speculators ? 

HOW TO START. 

Obviously, the first step toward success in the city is 
to get into the city. All roads and all railways lead to 

61 



62 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

these great centres, but the boy should not come without a 
definite object in view, or without an introduction to some 
one who can befriend him. It is very easy for the boy, 
especially with the consent of his parents, to get a letter 
or two to some one in the nearest large city. The vil- 
lage storekeeper knows somebody in the great market, 
and will cheerfully vouch in writing for the lad's char- 
acter. The principal of the school will do the same. 
Ambitious boys are never liars or dishonest, and their 
elders take pleasure in speaking well of them. Letters 
to almost any merchant or professional man in a city are 
useful. If the persons to whom the letters are ad- 
dressed cannot give the boy a place they are valuable as 
references. And when, backed up in this way, the youth 
sets out to find a situation, his quest is easy. Boys are 
always wanted. A boy can find ten situations where a 
middle-aged man without capital looks vainly for one. 

WHERE TO START. 

Now that our lad is sure of a place he must bear in 
mind that one place is about as good as another. One of 
the great leaders of finance has said that, in the long run, 
all businesses are alike in their results. There is just as 
much money in hardware as in dry goods, in drugs as in 
leather, and so on indefinitely. And it is of no conse- 
quence where the boy begins, because he has to begin at 
the bottom. 

A CASE IN POINT. 

One of the most successful wholesale druggists in New 
York came to the city with high ambitions, and started 
on his career by washing the glasses at a soda fountain 
on Broadway. He wrote a good hand, was quick at 
figures, and had made good progress in Latin, but he was 
not ashamed to rinse tumblers because he could work 



HENRY CLEWS. 63 

quadratic equations, and accurately construe Caesar's De 
Bello Gallico. He did his work well, all through one hot 
summer; came to his duties early and stayed late; never 
being sick and never forsaking the soda fountain to at- 
tend even a baseball game. In all ways he displayed 
great alacrity and willingness; consequently he was 
soon promoted to the sales counter. The proprietors 
had noticed his good points, and it was in their own in- 
terest that they advanced him. From that his upward 
progress was easy and natural. And he added to other 
accomplishments, in due time, a knowledge of the 
qualities and values of drugs, acquired by diligent study 
of books, and by observation of the methods of the 
establishment. In this way, always learning, and 
always making his knowledge practical, his upward 
march was inevitable. 

HIS RELATION TO HIS EMPLOYER. 

Nor should a youth fall into the error of considering 
his employer a tyrant or taskmaster, whose aim is to 
keep his young assistants down. On the contrary, all 
well-disposed, industrious, truthful, and honest boys have 
the heartiest sympathy and regard of grown-up people, 
whether employers or not. A lad must not expect that 
every man he meets will be his mentor ; but he may, 
with absolute certainty, count upon the good-will of 
every reputable business man whom he meets at the out- 
set, and this may become of practical benefit if occasion 
offers. 

THE IMPORTANCE OF GOOD HABITS. 

It might appear superfluous to insist upon the im- 
portance of good habits, were it not that lads between 
fifteen and twenty are, above all others, liable to acquire 
bad ones. At an age when wine, spirits, and tobacco are 



64 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

particularly harmful to their unformed constitutions 
lads drink and smoke, often to an excess unknown to 
older people, partly from imitation, and partly out of a 
mistaken notion that such indulgences are manly. A 
wise employer — and most employers have acquired wis- 
dom in this direction — will not advance a clerk or as- 
sistant who drinks or smokes to excess, and will not retain 
him if it is convenient to find some one else to fill his place. 

COMMON COURTESY. 

It is not unnecessary to add that, in addressing employ- 
ers, a junior should always add the word "sir" to a 
" yes " or " no." This one act of respect and courtesy 
may change one's fortune for life. It is shamefully 
neglected in the United States. 

SPECIAL STUDIES. 

Every lad who has his way to make in the city should, 
between his fifteenth and twentieth years, learn some 
foreign language in addition to his own; it is good mind 
training. It would be well also to acquire a knowledge 
of stenography and typewriting ; they will prove advan- 
tageous in his clerical work. 



XL 

SIGHTLESS BUT FAR-SEEING: 

A BLIND MERCHANT PRINCE: HOW HE GOT HIS 
START; CARDINAL RULES FOR BUSINESS SUC- 
CESS; GUIDE BOARDS TO PROSPERITY. 



Charles B. Rouss is known the country over for the 
marvellous success which has attended his career as 
a New York merchant, and for the great benefactions 
he has bestowed broadcast during his remarkable life. His 
career has been one of the wonders of New York. The 
other great merchants, his rivals, say they cannot see how 
he has managed to build up such a business out of noth- 
ing, or how he has managed the great fortune he has put 
to such good use. Yet Mr. Rouss himself does not see 
any element of the wonderful in what he has accom- 
plished. To him, his success means only earnest en- 
deavor, strict conformity to the rules of business, self- 
denial, long hours in the store, and a life as regular as 
clock-work for many, many years. His fortune he attrib- 
utes to those qualities which, he says, are essential to 
the success of any man, and he holds that any man can 
acquire them if he will. 

I called upon Mr. Rouss at the great Broadway store 
which he has erected, and sought an interview with him. 
I looked about me in wonder and admiration at the al- 

65 



66 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

most innumerable counters covered with every conceivable 
article of merchandise, and wondered if all this was really 
owned by the man who, a little over thirty years ago, was 
walking the streets of New York without a cent in his 
pocket. Seated at a small table in the centre of the 
great room, freely accessible to any one who desired to 
speak with him, and right in the midst of his clerks, was 
the blind merchant. 

THE GREAT MERCHANT IN HIS STORE. 

Presented by his manager, I walked up to the little 
table. Mr. Rouss took my hand and greeted me very 
pleasantly, after I had described my appearance to him 
so that he might get an idea of how I looked. I told him 
of my errand, that I had come to get from his own lips 
the story of his marvellous career. 

He spoke first of his life in Virginia. He was the son 
of a farmer of little wealth, but good character and high 
intellectual attainments. Reared on the farm, he re- 
mained there helping his father, up to the age of fifteen, 
when he determined to start out for himself. He had 
previously attended an academy in Winchester, twelve 
miles distant from the farm, and had been constantly at 
the head of his class during every term. But he was not 
satisfied with mere knowledge, and being ambitious for a 
career in business, he decided that the sooner he began it 
the better. So, at the age of fifteen he went to Winches- 
ter and secured employment in one of the leading general 
stores of the place, which was then a city of only five 
thousand inhabitants. He began work at a dollar a week, 
and had his salary increased gradually until, at the age 
of eighteen, he had saved five hundred dollars from his 
three years' wages, when he rented a store and went into 
business for himself. At the end of six years he was 



THE BLIND MERCHANT. 67 

occupying the largest store in the city, and had accumu- 
lated sixty thousand dollars as the result of his work. 

WAR WASTED HIS FORTUNE. 

Then came the terrible war, and he went to the front. 
His large fortune was entirely swallowed up in gifts to 
the army, and the " Lost Cause " as the Confederacy was 
called. Business had been greatly paralyzed throughout 
Virginia by the war, and he saw no opening for him in 
Winchester any longer, so he worked for several months 
upon his father's farm. 

After the first harvest of 1865 had been gathered he 
announced to the family that farm life was too slow and 
unsatisfactory for him, and he was determined to go to 
New York, and become, if possible, a second A. T. 
Stewart. 

His parents listened very doubtfully to this project, 
and did not conceal their belief that it was a wild idea, 
but, though Charles was an obedient son, and listened 
with all respect to his parents' arguments, he felt that he 
had in him the elements of success, and he determined to 
do in New York as he had done in Winchester. He held 
that the immutable elements of success are the same in 
any locality, and that it is only the opportunities that are 
changed. 

So, with his railroad ticket to New York, and just one 
dollar and eighty cents besides, he started out, after a 
stop-over in Baltimore, where he tried in vain to get 
credit, and arrived in the great metropolis with but a 
very few cents in his pocket. Indeed, he was eleven 
thousand dollars in debt. 

HOW HE GOT HIS GREAT START. 

Upon his arrival, he sought in vain for credit whereby 
he could establish business for himself, but everywhere 



68 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

he was refused. He walked the streets day and night, 
eating at free-lanch counters and sleeping at police-sta- 
tions. Finally, he met an old friend, who gave him a 
chance to earn some money. He was told that if he 
would sell a certain stock of goods he would be given a 
permanent place. He sold the goods, and realized a 
handsome profit on the deal. In a few months he had 
earned six thousand dollars, and from that time on he 
mounted upward, little by little, until finally his credit 
was unlimited. At the height of his success came the 
great financial panic of 1875, and he was again made 
penniless in a day, and he found himself fifty thousand 
dollars in debt. 

It seems scarcely credible that a man who had failed 
to such an extent, and who had encountered such terrible 
difficulties, would have the pluck to again start anew. 
But Mr. Rouss was not discouraged. He opened a com- 
paratively small store in Williamsburg at a rent of fifty 
cents a day, and in a few days his small stock was sold 
out. Then he moved into larger quarters, and at the end 
of three months he had moved six times. He was fol- 
lowing his old custom, buying for cash, and was under- 
selling everybody. Customers who had obtained bargains 
from him before flocked to him, and in a very short time 
he again had a bank account. Then began the steady 
upward course which has placed his name among the 
greatest business names of the country. 

Every one knows that he now occupies one of the fin- 
est buildings on Broadway in New York, and is doing a 
business that is marvellous in its extent. 

CARDINAL RULES FOR BUSINESS SUCCESS. 

Mr. Rouss has given me a few of the rules which have 
guided his career, and, after reading them, who can fail 



THE BLIND MERCHANT. 69 

to see why he has succeeded ? The following rules for 
a successful life could well be carried in the pocket-book 
of every young man and woman in America : — 

Keep good company or none. 

Never be idle. If your hands cannot be fully em- 
ployed, attend to the cultivation of your mind. 

Always speak the truth. Make few promises. 
Live up to your engagements. 

Keep your own secrets if you have any. 

When you speak to a person look him in the face. 

Good company and good conversation are the very 
sinews of virtue. 

Good character is above all things else. Your 
character cannot be essentially injured, except by 
your own acts. If any one speaks evil of you let 
your life be so that none will believe him. Keep 
yourself innocent, if you would be happy. 

Drink no kind of intoxicating liquors. 

Ever live (misfortune excepted) within your in- 
come. 

When you retire, think over what you have been 
doing during the day. 

Never play at a game of chance. 

Avoid temptation, through fear that you may not 
withstand it. 

Earn money before you spend it. Never run into 
debt unless you see your way out of it again. Never 
borrow if you can possibly avoid it. 

Do not marry until you are able to support a wife. 

Never speak evil of any one. 

Be just before you are generous. 

Save when you are young, to spend when you are 
old. 

Read over the above maxims at least nn^o n weok. 



70 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 



HIS METHOD OF DOING BUSINESS. 

He is invariably down at six o'clock in the morning, 
and never leaves nntil half-past seven in the evening. 
Every one of the thousand or more letters received daily 
at the store is read to him, and he dictates the answers. 
Each evening the heads of twenty-eight departments 
come to him to report what they have done during the 
day, and everything throughout the store is really under 
his supervision. His business is conducted in the sim- 
plest way possible, and he does not believe in elaborate 
arrangements of any kind. 

Charles B. Rouss has had to encounter difficulties 
greater than those that come in most of our paths, and 
yet here he is, a multi-millionaire, and still but little over 
sixty years old. His success has come to him quickly, 
too, though it has been simply the result of hard work 
and not mere luck, if there be such a thing as luck. 

GUIDE-BOARDS TO MERCANTILE PROSPERITY. 

His axioms for business are invincible. Here are some 
that he laid down for me : — 

The dignity of labor is the greatest of all dignities ; 
the genius of work the greatest of all geniuses. 

Industry, integrity, economy, and promptness are 
cardinal requisites to certain and honorable success. 

Merit is the trade-mark of success ; quality the 
true test of value. 

Not in time, place, or circumstances, but in the 
man lies success ; and the larger the field the greater 
the results. 

Credit and partnerships are the scourge of com- 
mercial history, and the bane of commercial ex- 
perience. 



THE BLIND MERCHANT. 71 

Beware of the gifts of the Greeks; they allure that 
they may destroy ; credit is tempting, but ruin surely 
follows in its path. 

Burn the ledger and learn to say no ; this is the 
best for both buyer and seller. 

Learn when to buy, how to buy, and where to buy. 

Buy for cash and sell for cash. 

If you buy bargains sell bargains. 

Quick sales and small profits make more sales and 
greater results. 

Large profits and few sales mean, in time, no sales 
and no profits. 

Bargain purchases without bargain sales is an am- 
bition which overleaps itself, and is as unwise as it 
is unprofitable. 

Long credits with large profits tempt both buyer 
and seller, but they awaken the siren-song which is 
ever chanting the funeral dirge of disappointed 
victims, both buyer and seller being chief mourners, 
and the sheriff the undertaker. 

HIS PRIME SECRET \ A CASH BUSINESS AND LOW PRICES. 

Charles B. Rouss has practised what he preaches. His 
great Broadway store has become the purchasing centre 
of hundreds and thousands of men throughout the 
country, who believe in buying and selling for cash, and 
who have learned that it is one secret of his remarkable 
success. 

It is a sad thing that this man who has been so much 
and has done so much must himself suffer a loss that 
seems to be irreparable. A few years ago his sight 
began to fail him, and he grew gradually worse and 
worse until now he can see absolutely nothing. It is a 
terrible affliction to a man who is so active and so neces- 



72 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

sary to the world. Specialists without number have 
been consulted without avail ; not one of them has been 
able to help him in the least. He feels his loss keenly. 
" Of what avail is my wealth," he said to me, " when I 
cannot see ? " 

Yet he always retains a keen interest in helping others. 
Many are the boys who owe their start in life to his kindly 
guidance and aid, and many of those he has helped to 
begin right are owners of their own stores to-day. 

Any sketch of this remarkable man would be incom- 
plete without reference to the philanthropic feature of 
his personality. Not a day passes that the needy, far 
and near, do not receive aid known only to him and his 
Maker ; and his public benefactions are numerous and 
generous in the extreme. It is delightful to know that 
he is held in high honor by those who have known him 
longest and best; and that the Society of Southern 
Women in New York have presented to the city a statue 
of the wise, the patriotic, the beneficent blind merchant. 



XII. 



A SCOTCH-IRISH IMMIGRANT BOY: WHO 
SAVED HIS MONEY AND HAD AN EYE 
FOR INVESTMENTS. 

THE PERCEPTION OF OPPORTUNITY; INTEGRITY; 
EARNESTNESS; AND ATTENTION TO DETAILS. 



Samuel Sloan, the president of the Delaware, Lack- 
awanna and Western Railway, was eighty-two years old 
when I called upon him. He came to America as a 
child, and was educated in the public schools of New 
York. At fourteen he was fitting for Columbia Col- 
lege, but the death of his father made it needful for 
him to enter an importing house as a clerk. 

Once fairly started in his first employment, the boy 
turned his whole attention to making a business career 
for himself. He did not cultivate an intimacy with the 
easy-chair in the office. He did not watch the clock for 
quitting-time, or the calendar for pay-day. He worked 
hard for the interests of his employers, and was not long 
in giving promise of a brilliant future. His employers 
advanced him from one position of trust to another, until 
he commanded the best salary in the place. He was in- 
defatigable. Even when a junior clerk he learned the 
requirements of the business thoroughly. For twenty 
years he never faltered in his devotion to the house. 

73 



74 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

SAVING AND INVESTING. 

In speaking of this period of his life, Mr. Sloan said to 
me : 

" I never regret the hard work I put in there. It gave 
me my wide acquaintance with men, with the value of 
money in the sense of capital, and with the ways of let- 
ting money earn money. No matter what my salary was, 
I saved some of it, and sought careful investments. It 
was here I earned my first thousand dollars, and saw it 
grow to five thousand in a few years. In fact, my savings 
were considerable before the end of my connection with 
the house." 

This saving of money and the thrifty habits he had 
learned stood him in good stead against the hour of a 
great opportunity. 

Living in Brooklyn, his good judgment as a business 
man was sought for the conduct of municipal affairs ; he 
was afterwards made State senator by the votes of both 
parties. 

HIS OPPORTUNITY. 

He had already a trained eye for seeing the main 
chance in business ventures. It was while serving the 
State at Albany, when he was about forty years old, that 
he recognized the great opportunity for a Hudson river 
railway. It was before Commodore Vanderbilt had turned 
his attention to rail traffic. Mr. Sloan saw his chance, 
when others did not. James Boorman had projected and 
built a single track road from the metropolis north, upon 
the east bank of the Hudson ; yet it was poorly equipped 
with rolling stock, unfinished at its northerly end, and 
practically bankrupt when Mr. Sloan invested the bulk 
of his savings in the stock at seventeen- cents on the 
dollar. 



SAMUEL SLOAN. 75 

" That was the turning-point in my life," he declared. 
" I saw my work cut out for me. I was entitled to 
membership in the directorate and I took my place fully 
determined to rescue the road and make it pay. Governor 
Edwin D. Morgan and Moses H. Grinnell were elected 
to the same board. For ten years I devoted myself to 
the finishing, extending, and better equipment of the 
Hudson River Railroad. With what success you can 
judge when I say that under my care the stock rose 
gradually in value from seventeen cents to $1.30 per 
share." 

Upon retiring from the presidency in 1864, in favor of 
Mr. Vanderbilt (who urged him in vain to stay), Mr. 
Sloan was already a rich man. His fellow-directors pre- 
sented him with a superb service of plate costing $7,500, 
and a testimonial in the form of a letter, which said : " Per- 
mit us to add that it is the unanimous sense of the board 
that to your energy and fidelity, and to your judgment 
and ability, it is mainly due that the financial and ma- 
terial concerns of the company have been brought to the 
present condition of prosperity and strength." 

After this he devoted himself to the affairs of the 
Lackawanna. 

SUNDAY RAILWAY SERVICE. 

" Why was it that you ordered your train service dis- 
continued on Sunday, and have never resumed it?" I 
asked. 

"Because I respect the Sabbath, and decline to ask 
• my men to do work on that day which I would not do 
myself." 

" The revenues of the road could be swelled by several 
millions a year by Sunday service," I suggested. 

" Very likely. But they won't be while I am in con- 



76 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

trol. We don't need the money, and our men are better 
off for the Sunday rest." 

INTEGRITY, EARNESTNESS, AND ATTENTION TO DETAIL. 

" Will you tell me, Mr. Sloan/' I asked, " what traits 
of character offer the best promise of success in a be- 
ginner ? " 

The answer came like a flash : " First, integrity ; sec- 
ond, earnestness ; third, application to detail. A. young 
man, or woman either, who possesses these is bound to 
win." 

" Do you think these qualities are consistent with a 
Wall-street career ? " 

" Undoubtedly — unless you include cheap speculation. 
This is the clearing-house of America. Here is the 
financial pulse of the nation. Nowhere in the world 
does integrity find a readier appreciation. If a young 
man has the opportunity of an honorable career in 
finance, and he is possessed of these staying qualities, he 
will be heard from. But he must apply himself intensely 
— go into every detail, and study the questions con- 
nected with his work." 

" How about the thirst for gold, and its accompanying 
demoralization ? " I ventured. 

"He must not be sordid. He must not permit the 
glitter of gold to blind him to the moral obligations of a 
Christian and a gentleman. Money is a means, not an 
end. Let him sacrifice a fortune, if need be, but never 
sacrifice a principle." 



XIII. 

THE BOY WHO BECAME PRESIDENT OF THE 
SOUTHERN EXPRESS. 



" It was either fish or cut bait with me," said Col. 
M. J. O'Brien, the president of the Southern Express, 
when I asked him about his early life. " My business 
career began when I was seven and a half years old. My 
father and mother had died ; and to support my sisters 
I had to begin at once to earn my living. At first I re- 
ceived the enormous salary of twenty-five cents a week 
in the publishing house of John Murphy and Company, 
Baltimore, for attending to a roller. Later I became a 
clerk in a wholesale drug house, — that is," — and Colonel 
O'Brien paused, — "I opened the store in the morning 
and swept it out, and I rose to be a full-fledged dispenser 
of medicines. All this time the red wheels and the green 
bodies of the Adams Express wagons had a peculiar fas- 
cination for me. 

" I was increasing in years and stature, and finally 
went to the Adams Express office, and importuned an 
official there so persistently for a position that, to get rid 
of me, — as I believe, — he offered me a job as a driver 
at Memphis, Tenn., doubtless thinking that would scare 
me off. A condition was that I was to leave the day 
after the next — the Fourth of July. I accepted, bor- 
rowed thirty dollars, and started for Memphis. 

77 



78 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

" My first trouble rose through want of knowledge — 
whether, in hitching up a horse, it was the bridle or the 
breeching-strap that belonged in the animal's mouth. 
All the money I had to my name — twenty-five cents — 
I had to pay a man for that important piece of informa- 
tion ; " and Mr. O'Brien's eyes twinkled at my laughter. 

HIS EDUCATION. 

"But what was your education up to that time?" I 
inquired. 

" When I was eight years old, I reasoned with myself 
that an education was necessary. I attended night 
school, and later a school under the supervision of the 
Sisters of Charity. When I was able to afford it I paid 
for instruction. If I had to start life over again my first 
aim would be to secure a college education. My educa- 
tion for the most part has been gained in the school of 
experience. It is a hard master, but what you learn you 
never forget. It is impressed indelibly upon your mind. 

" Well, when I first put my foot on the step of an ex- 
press wagon, in Memphis, I determined that it should 
lead to better things, that with intelligence and appli- 
cation it should earn for me a higher position ; and that 
I would labor heart and soul for its attainment. In 
other words, my ambition was strong. I had an eye 
solely for advancement, performing my duties honestly 
and faithfully. 

"Many were the nights that I slept in my wagon, on 
the bluff, waiting in uncertainty for the arrival of a 
steamer that would carry my freight and other matter to 
New Orleans and other points. The competition between 
the boats was very great in those days, and I was a per- 
son much sought after by the captains. My first duty 
after my arrival in Memphis, of course, was to repay the 



THE SOUTHERN EXPRESS. 79 

money I had borrowed. My salary at first was thirty 
dollars a month. Out of that I had to pay twenty-five 
dollars a month for board and lodging at the cheapest 
place, so it took some time for me to get on a square 
footing with the world. Every boat that came along 
made me stay to some meal. I quickly saw that it was 
unnecessary for me to pay for board in Memphis, when 
I was continually dining out; and therefore I merely kept 
a room, which was a saving of twenty dollars a month. 
I suppose I could have shown favoritism to this or that 
captain, but I never did. I was working in the interest 
of the express company, and for them I worked solely. 
The first boat that touched received whatever I had, that 
it might be dispatched to another point as quickly as 
possible, and facilitate the service." 

HIS FIRST SAVINGS. 

" What were your first savings ? " 

"One dollar and a half; I remember it distinctly. 
When it reached that enviable mark, — one hundred 
dollars, — I felt like a millionaire. There is a great deal 
in putting aside your first one hundred dollars. I kept 
adding to it, little by little. I always lived within my 
means, and managed to save something. Most young 
men do not try to save and accumulate a nest-egg. The 
majority are extravagant and readily part with their 
earnings. It is well to form business principles early 
in life, and to learn to economize. It is the funda- 
mental principle of business. 

FROM SHIPPING CLERK TO A CASHIER. 

" All the time I was a driver I kept looking higher. 
After a while my employers discovered that I could do 
something besides drive a wagon, and I was made a ship- 



80 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

ping-clerk. At that time Memphis was the only channel 
through which, by steamboats, connections could be made 
with Vicksburg, New Orleans, and intermediate points. 
The character of my service as a shipping-clerk led in a 
year to my being sent to New Orleans to fill the place of 
cashier in that office. Previously, many business houses, 
including a bank, in Memphis had made me tempting 
offers. I turned a deaf ear, believing in the old adage 
that c a rolling stone gathers no moss.' If you have an 
object in view, don't swerve from it ! 

"Six months later, the Civil war broke out, and in- 
flamed with patriotism, I left for Baltimore, hoping to 
enlist in a Confederate regiment in my native city. At 
that time the business of the Adams Express Company 
was so heavy in Washington that I was asked to accept 
temporary service in that city. I remained there six 
months, and then got through the lines near Louisville, 
and went South. I served on the gunboat ' Bienville,' 
under Captain Poindexter. My naval career was short 
and inglorious, being brought to an end without active 
service on account of threatening conditions that caused 
the self-destruction of the immature fleet. I went to 
Richmond, hoping that Secretary Mallory would give me 
a chance to win fame and glory. But the secretary of 
the treasury, who was present, induced me to reenter the 
express service in special charge of treasury shipments 
going from Bichmond to points south. While discharg- 
ing that duty, I was appointed by Bobert Ould commis- 
sioner of the exchange of prisoners, to his bureau, and 
was attached to the staff of Major W. H. Hatch. 

" After the war I was promoted from one position to 
another in the Southern Express Company, until in 1868 
I was appointed general superintendent, and subsequently 
became vice president and general manager. 



THE SOUTHERN EXPRESS. 81 

"The Southern Express Company, you know, was the 
Adams Express Company until 1860, when Mr. Plant, 
representing the holders of the latter's stocks in the 
South, purchased for them all the rights, titles, and 
contracts of the Adams Express Company covering the 
South, and created the Southern Express Company. 

"Eight here, I wish to speak about encouragement. I 
believe in it thoroughly. Slap a young man on the back 
and tell him he is doing well, if he is. There is nothing 
like it. Mr. Plant continually encouraged me by his 
words of approval, and by his genial manner toward me." 

"Mr. O'Brien," I asked, "is there a marked road to 
success ? " 

" No rules can be laid down which will insure success. 
Ciren instances play their part in every man's career, but 
with steady, honest endeavor, and unflinching zeal and 
determination, a young man can always meet with at 
least a fair share of prosperity, even if the goal of his 
ambition is not attained. It depends more upon self 
than luck. The youthful mind is often perplexed to 
know what profession or occupation to follow, but my 
belief is that when an avocation is selected it should be 
closely adhered to, and a young man should not be 
swayed by opportunities for temporary advancement in 
other fields. When he has made his choice he should, 
like the cobbler, ' stick to his last,' and there should be 
no limit to his ambition. 

THE SCHOOL OF EXPERIENCE. 

"The mind should be fixed upon the highest position ; 
and the constant struggle to attain it is the strongest 
incentive to win success. Without disparaging educa- 
tional influences, which cannot be valued too highly, the 
school of experience is a great one. Familiarity with 



82 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

the smallest details of one's business is essential to the 
successful administration of any concern, and the man 
who has acquired his knowledge by working his way up, 
rung by rung, from the bottom, is the best equipped to 
direct those who perform the duties which he, at one 
time or another, himself discharged. 

" There is nothing in existing conditions which should 
discourage young men in their pursuit of success. 

" While their numbers are growing the opportunities 
are more numerous, and the young men of to-day have 
the same chance to win success as those of a quarter of 
a century ago. It rests entirely with the individual. 

" Always be steadfast and loyal in promoting the 
interests of your employers, and let strict integrity be 
your guiding star. Feel that you are part and parcel of 
whatever business you are engaged in. 

KEEP YOUR PROMISES. 

" Make no promises which you are not sure can be ful- 
filled ; and whenever higher honors are attained, do not 
forget that you once occupied a humble position ; but, on 
the contrary, make your individual success the reason 
for words of encouragement that will stimulate the 
younger employee to persevere in his laudable ambition. 
A kind word costs nothing, and is self-repaying. Don't 
be forgetful of a mother's counsel. 

" I think, on account of the common desire to expedite 
business, every one should learn stenography, telegraphy, 
and typewriting. Such men are in demand, and can find 
openings that prove stepping-stones to higher things. A 
knowledge of languages is also becoming more necessary 
on account of the growth of our country, and its interest 
in exportation. 

" Stick to whatever you undertake after mature de- 



THE SOUTHERN EXPRESS. 83 

deliberation, — that is my motto," concluded Col. M. J. 
O'Brien, a forcible, courteous gentleman, who started 
in life without any other resources than energy, skill, 
and integrity, and to-day controls the Southern express 
business of this country. 



XIV. 
A FAKM BOY: 

HOW GRIT, PROMPTNESS, ECONOMY, SAGACITY, AND 
PERSONAL COURAGE HAVE WON THE PRIZE. 



One of the great generals of the War for the Union 
once said that he knew of no man who wonld make a 
better commander of an army corps than Colonel Albert 
A. Pope, of Boston. 

This same general has known Colonel Pope for nearly 
forty years. He knew him in the army, and -watched 
his career as the boy lieutenant of nineteen won rank on 
rank by sheer merit, until he led his regiment, the 
Thirty-fifth Massachusetts, into Petersburg. He has 
known him in civil life, without other capital than good 
health, good habits, clear judgment, and an indomitable 
will, rising higher and higher, until, while still in middle 
life, he is a multi-millionaire, and the head of one of the 
greatest manufacturing concerns in the world. Colonel 
Pope's own workmen, at almost any time of the year, 
are numerous enough to form a full brigade. What 
wonder that any military man who knew these things 
would be glad to entrust him with the handling of an 
army corps if occasion should arise ? 

Colonel Pope's career is another of those from which a 
young man, whose inherited fortune is his head and his 
hands, can take much encouragement. 

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ALBERT A. POPE. 



COLONEL POPE. 85 



HE WAS A FAITHFUL HOY. 

Before he was ten years of age he began working 
afternoons and during vacations for a farmer in Brook- 
line, near Boston ; and he never was a boy who shirked- 
He was full-blooded and bubbling over with animal 
spirits, and just as ready to resent a slight or an insult 
as any youngster in Suffolk County, but there was nothing 
sneaky or mean about him. 

There are three things in which this ten-year-old 
farmer's helper differed markedly from his fellows : — 

He was a natural leader : a natural trader : a natural 
money-saver. 

Opportunity always comes for such a boy. Before he 
was thirteen years old young Pope had begun to buy 
fruit and vegetables from the farmers. He would go to 
them in the afternoon, make his purchases, and deliver 
to his customers before school in the morning. He 
carried the produce in a market basket on his arm. 
Later he hired his father's horse; and his market- 
wagon, with fresh vegetables and fruit, became quite a 
feature in the lower part of the town. He hired other 
boys to help him, and managed his affairs so thriftily 
that in one season he cleared more than one hundred 
dollars. The money-saving side of it is within the reach 
of any boy or young man, — so is the sturdy honesty 
that was characteristic of this young trader. No matter 
what the stress, young Pope always stood by his word. 

HE KEPT HIS CREDIT FIRST-CLASS. 

Young Pope's obligations were always met on time. 
Prom the first, he made it a rule to p<uj every debt as 
soon as it was due. This was vastly creditable to the 
poor boy who counted every cent, and who, to succeed, 



86 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

must deny himself the spending money that other boys 
in his condition sometimes have. He was engaged in 
character-building as well as in credit-building. 

HE NEVER SPENT BEFORE EARNING. 

He kept careful account of his expenses. There are 
curiously interesting memoranda that young Pope made 
in those earliest days of struggle, — twenty-one cents of 
expense in one month, eighteen cents in another, and 
fourteen cents in yet another, — and that, too, while he 
was always with money in his pocket. This gives a clue 
to Colonel Pope's entire business career — he never spent 
what he did nH have, and relatively very little of what he 
did have. To this day, he has no patience with useless 
expenditure; and, although he has given away more than 
half a million dollars in charities and benefactions, and 
has surrounded himself with every sensible luxury, he is 
annoyed by anything that savors of waste. It would 
mean thousands and thousands more of happy homes if 
this knowledge and practice were universal. 

THE BOY WAS IN DEMAND. 

In 1858, when in his fifteenth year, he went as an as- 
sistant to a dealer in Quincy Market. The boy was get- 
ting on ; he was in demand. Before sunrise in the morn- 
ing, and after sundown in the evening, he rode back and 
forth in an open market-wagon with his employer, facing 
the severest weather, and never shrinking from any work. 
A few months later he began to work for a firm of deal- 
ers in shoe findings and leather, at four dollars a week. 
This was a life of drudgery — porter work, washing 
windows, cleaning sidewalks, carrying heavy bags and 
packages of material, running errands, etc. Four, five 



COLONEL POPE. 87 

miles, sometimes more, he trudged to his home, to save 
car fare. After a time his salary was five dollars. 

AS A SOLDIER. 

In the winter of 1861, when the mutterings of ap- 
proaching war filled the air, young Pope began preparing 
for a soldier's life with the same systematic care that he 
had planned other enterprises in his boyhood. He studied 
the army regulations and tactics, carrying with him a 
copy of " Hardee " constantly. He familiarized himself 
with all the bugle-calls, which one of his sisters played 
for him as often as he wished. 

In the summer of 1862, when Lincoln called for " three 
hundred thousand more," young Pope, at the age of nine- 
teen, accepted the position of junior second lieutenant in 
Company I, of the Thirty-fifth Massachusetts Volunteers. 

The regiment had not been long in service before he 
was made a first lieutenant, and, soon afterwards, a cap- 
tain. He was employed on important detached services, 
and acted as commander of his regiment on many occa- 
sions. 

HE ORGANIZED A REGIMENT IN A DAY. 

Captain Pope was highly complimented by his superior 
officers for the ability and skill which he displayed in 
organizing in twelve hours a provisional regiment of ar- 
tillery from the convalescent camp at Alexandria, with 
which force he advanced to the defence of Washington at 
the time of Early's raid, assuming command of Fort Slo- 
. cum and Port Stevens with forty-seven pieces of artillery. 
He served in the principal Virginia campaigns, with 
Burnside in Tennessee, with Grant at Vicksburg, and 
under Sherman at Jackson, Mississippi. He commanded 
Fort Hell at Petersburg, and in the last attack led his 



88 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

regiment into the city at the age of twenty-one years. 
He was breveted major il for gallant conduct at the battle 
of Fredericksburg ; " and lieutenant-colonel "for gallant 
conduct at Knoxville, Poplar Springs Church, and in 
front of Petersburg," March 13, 1865. He was in the 
battles of South Mountain, Antietam, Sulphur Springs, 
Fredericksburg, Vicksburg, Jackson, Mississippi, Knox- 
ville, Petersburg, and Poplar Springs Church. He was 
wounded slightly in one leg at Knoxville. 

But it is not alone from a military point of view that 
Colonel Pope's army career is notable. The same habits 
of thrift and economy which had characterized him as a 
boy were carried into the service. He saved his money. 
While other officers were paying fifty cents a pound for 
butter, and treating themselves to costly delicacies, 
Colonel Pope was living very much as the private sol- 
diers lived. And so, while men of his rank, and even 
general officers, came out of the service without a penny 
saved, he came back to civil life with over $3,000 in cash 
to his credit. 

At the close of the war he returned to his former em- 
ployer, but soon went into business for himself, in the 
line of slipper decorations and shoe manufacturers' sup- 
plies. Here his habits of thrift and his keen business 
judgment brought him success from the start, and he 
soon had a large and profitable trade. 

HE FIRST SAW A BICYCLE IN 1876. 

It was at the Centennial Exposition in 1876 that 
Colonel Pope first saw a bicycle. He was fascinated with 
the mechanism of the novel vehicle, and returned again 
and again to study the exhibit. 

He soon became convinced that there was a great 
future for the bicycle, and he decided to become identified 



COLONEL POPE. 89 

with that industry. In 1877 he placed the first order 
for an importation of English machines, and in that year 
the Pope Manufacturing Company, for which he supplied 
the capital, was organized. 

At thirty-five years old he had earned and saved the 
needful money. 

The first order given for bicycles to be manufactured 
in the United States was in the spring of 1878. The 
Weed Sewing Machine Company, of Hartford, Connecti- 
cut, undertook this work, and was soon controlled and 
finally bought out by Colonel Pope. 

In the interests of cycling, and for the purpose of edu- 
cating the American mind to a proper appreciation of 
the advantage and profit of wheeling, he founded the 
" Wheelman ;" and put upward of $60,000 into this en- 
terprise. The same publication exists to-day under the 
name of "Outing." 

He took the lead, and shouldered the expense of many 
of the suits between wheelmen and various city govern- 
ments, the result of which was the throwing open of our 
public parks and boulevards for the use of bicyclers. 
These decisions practically placed the bicycle upon the 
same footing as a carriage or any other vehicle. 

It was necessary in the earlier stages of the business 
to exercise great care in the matter of patents. All who 
owned any patented devices on the bicycle as a whole, or 
on appliances used in its construction, rushed in upon 
the pioneer company and demanded recompense in the 
way of royalties. Colonel Pope made it a point to buy 
outright all the patents which were considered valuable, 
and thus placed himself on a safe basis, at the same time 
greatly benefiting the general conditions of the trade by 
licensing others to manufacture under the rights which 
lie controlled. 



90 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

TALL OAKS FROM LITTLE ACORNS GROW. 

Starting from the small beginning of manufacturing 
fifty machines in 1878, he has built up a phenomenal 
business, employing a capital of over $5,000,000, utilizing 
four factories at Hartford, Connecticut, with some eigh- 
teen acres of floor space, giving employment to more than 
three thousand expert mechanics, with an enrolled list of 
over three thousand eight hundred agents, and having a 
productive capacity of more than six hundred bicycles a 
day. 

Through his untiring efforts Congress and many of 
the State legislative bodies have been aroused to the ne- 
cessity of better roads ; and throughout the United 
States the question of " Good Eoads " is being agitated 
to such a degree through his persistent work, that the 
day is not distant when every legislative body in the 
country will be compelled to take measures along this 
line of needed reform. 

Besides being president of the Pope Manufacturing 
Company, Colonel Pope is a director in other large con- 
cerns, as the American Loan and Trust Company. He is 
vice-president of the Society of the Army of the Poto- 
mac, a life member of the American Academy of Politi- 
cal and Social Science, one of the executive committee of 
the American Association of Inventors and Manufactur- 
ers, of the Hartford Board of Trade, and has been an of- 
ficial visitor of Wellesley College, and of the Lawrence 
Scientific School of Harvard College. He is also an offi- 
cer or director in a great many other prominent corpora- 
tions. 

ECONOMICAL, NOT STINGY. 

I have alluded to Colonel Pope's habits of economy and 
thrift, and to the influence they have had upon his sue- 



COLO X el rovE. 91 

cess in business. It is one thing to be economical, and 
quite another to be stingy or mean. Colonel Tope is 
economical ; he is in no sense stingy. Waste of any kind 
in manufacturing or marketing seems a business crime to 
him. Waste of any sort annoys him. Said he to me 
one day : " When I see a man at a hotel order from the 
bill of fare a number of things that he does not want, 
and then muss them over and leave them just because 
they cost him nothing it makes me so uneasy that I hate 
to look at him. Such a man can't amount to much by 
himself. Every boy should be taught to save, to be care- 
ful of his clothes, careful of his food, careful of his 
money. It is n't possible for every man to become a 
millionaire, bat it is possible for every one who has 
health to become independent." 

I have often noticed Colonel Pope turning out super- 
fluous electric lights, and I once saw an employee get a 
sharp reprimand because he started to do some casual 
figuring on a clean sheet of fine office paper. 

There is no mystery about Colonel Pope's success in 
life. It is the natural outcome of conditions which any 
young man can create for himself in greater or less de- 
gree. And I am sure that, beginning now, such a boy 
would conquer wealth and position as this one did start- 
ing in 1858. It is all nonsense to say that opportunities 
no longer exist as they did then. The same lines may 
not present openings, but even greater possibilities are 
within reach all around. 



XV. 

A EAKM BOY'S KOAD TO FAME. 

PLOUGHMAN, TEACHER, LAWYER, LEGISLATOR — TOM 
WATSON. 



Few public men in America are more interesting to- 
day than Thomas E. Watson, of Georgia. He was born 
on Sept. 5, 1858. His father was a tenant-farmer. He 
rented a farm of a few acres near the city of Augusta, 
and supported his family by its products and by doing 
work for his neighbors. 

Tom was the oldest of the children. He became his 
father's right-hand helper, feeding and attending to their 
one mule, and doing anything else which his strength 
permitted. There were many mouths to feed, and so 
young Watson had little time for school. During the 
winter months, when other lads of his own age were free 
to go to school and enjoy their sports, he was busy haul- 
ing, to the neighboring city, the cord wood and light 
wood cut by his father. It was only when the land was 
being broken up, preparatory to putting in the next 
season's crops, and for the few weeks after the crops had 
been harvested, that the boy could go to school. 

But his study was not limited to his school-days, for 
early in his life he learned the history of Alexander H. 
Stephens; and, taking him as a model, he studied at 
every possible opportunity. 

92 



THOMAS E. WATSON. 93 



STRUGGLING FOR AN EDUCATION. 

When little more than sixteen, young Watson managed 
to spend one term in the Mercer University, at Macon, 
Ga. But it was to be the end of his dream of a 
college education, for his hard-earned dollars were soon 
spent, and his father's family still called for his active 
services to assist in their support. On his return from 
college, where he was known as the brightest boy in the 
freshman class, he determined to quit the farm and to 
try to get a place as teacher in the public schools. To 
obtain such an appointment, influence was required ; but 
young Watson had no influence, and for weeks he 
trudged the streets of Augusta and the sandy roads of 
the surrounding country, begging work. Then learning 
of a vacancy for a teacher in the country, about fifty 
miles away, he set out to make his application with no 
other support than a letter of introduction from the school 
commissioner of Augusta. He was too late. A teacher 
had already received the appointment, but Tom learned 
of another vacancy still farther on. He again set out on 
his tramp through the country, this time to meet with 
success, and take charge of the school at a salary of three 
hundred dollars a year. That money all went to his 
father's household, the father having rented another 
place, which proved to be unhealthy, and where some of 
the family suffered constantly from chills and fever. 

BEGINNINGS OF GREATNESS. 

. The next year Tom succeeded in getting a place in a 
school of Augusta. Then he began the study of law 
under Judge William R. McLaws, who, two years later, 
presented him to the bar for examination. Tom was so 
poor, at this time, that the judge requested the clerk of 



94 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

the court to "credit Thomas E. Watson for a license 
fee," which the clerk did. For one year he returned to 
his teaching and practised law in the justices' courts. 
At the end of this time he applied to one of his old 
school teachers, then living at Thompson, G-a., to trust 
him for a year's board and lodging, so that he could get 
upon his feet in the practice of his profession. His old 
friend generously consented, and this proved to be the 
turning-point in his career. Before that year was out, 
success in business had come to Tom Watson, and never 
since then has he had financial trouble. 

At twenty-six he was one of the best-known men in 
his State, and one of its ablest and most eloquent law- 
yers. He was elected several times to the Legislature, 
where he became prominent as an advocate of all meas- 
ures tending to help farmers. In 1890 he was elected to 
Congress, where he became the leader of the Populists of 
the South. He received the nomination of this party 
for the Vice-Presidency, when William J. Bryan was 
nominated for the Presidency. Although he knew 
defeat was inevitable, he was loyal to his principles, and 
refused to follow his friends' advice to decline the nom- 
ination. 

His home, near the small town of Thompson, Ga., is 
one of the most comfortable in that part of the State. 
He has extensive planting interests, and besides his 
large law practice, he devotes much time to literature, 
and has written several books on historical subjects. 

A distinguished man of his own State, who has known 
Mr. Watson from boyhood, when asked the reason for 
his remarkable success, said : 

"Tom is earnest, indefatigable, and resourceful. He 
studies his cases. He goes into court and wins them. 
He displays marked oratorical power. Men have learned 



THOMAS E. WATSON-. 95 

to respect his ability, and to know that his character is 
above reproach. He does not chew, smoke, drink, swear, 
or gamble. 

u Naturally nothing can prevent the success of such a 
compound of amiability, intellectuality, honesty, ambi- 
tion, dauntless spirit, and industry. Any boy with those 
qualities will go to the top, no matter whence he starts." 



XVI. 

WHAT A BLIND FARMER CAN DO. 



Everywhere are to be found men heroically doing 
the work of life under the burden of grave infirmities. 
Almost every community has such men and women. 
Blindness is one of the most trying of adverse condi- 
tions. Yet what marvels do the blind accomplish ! Clin- 
ton, Ind., is justly proud of one John Walther, blind 
from his birth, yet successful as a farmer and fence- 
builder. Some things told of him by the " Indianapolis 
Journal " would be incredible to those not familiar with 
the achievements of the blind. 

Until he reached manhood, John lived on a farm with 
his father, and it was not uncommon to see him drive to 
the city with a load of corn, wheat, or other farm prod- 
ucts. A piece of ground was given to him, and each 
year he would plant and cultivate a big garden, whose 
products he would market in Clinton, and place the pro- 
ceeds to his credit in the bank. He would buy horses, 
cattle, and hogs. Even when a boy he was regarded as 
a good trader. It is now a common occurrence for John 
to stop in the middle of the road and trade horses with 
some jockey, and it is said that he is never worsted. He 
will go to any part of his father's large farm, unattended, 
in search of a truant horse or cow, and his searches are 

96 



A BLIND FARMER. 97 

usually successful. How he manages to distinguish the 
stock for which he is searching is a question which puzzles 
everybody, and a mystery which the blind man himself 
cannot or does not explain. 

When he decides to go to town, he makes his way to 
the woods, and, with apparently as little difficulty as a 
man blessed with two good eyes, selects his favorite horse 
from perhaps a dozen grazing in the pasture. He has 
each season for years been a " hand " in the harvest field, 
and the farmers regard him as one of the fastest and most 
reliable wheat " shockers " in the neighborhood. It was 
three years ago during harvest that the blind man's 
brother became entangled in the machinery of a harvester 
and suffered a broken arm. As soon as the accident oc- 
curred, John started on a run from the field to the barn, 
and began hitching a team to a spring wagon. 

He worked rapidly, and when the men bore the injured 
man to the house, the blind boy had the team hitched up, 
driven out in the road, and ready to start with his brother 
to a doctor in the city. He drove almost at breakneck 
speed, made the turns of the streets after reaching the 
city, and brought the horse to a standstill in front of a 
doctor's office. After assisting the wounded brother up 
the stairway into the office, he drew out his watch, slid 
his index finger quickly around the dial, and, with a sigh, 
remarked, " Just half-past ten — I was only twelve min- 
utes driving to town." 

There is no work on the farm that the blind man can- 
not do, and during idle times he builds and repairs fences- 
He can lay the " worm " of a rail fence as well as any 
man, and prides himself upon the rapid manner in which 
he gets along with the work. He built a plank fence 
along the gravel road in front of the Walther house. The 
line is perfectly straight, while the workmanship on the 



98 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

fence and gates is not excelled by that of many men who 
can see and who profess to be carpenters. 

Strangers visiting the Walther farm can hardly believe 
that the man they see at work is not in perfect posses- 
sion of his senses. He apparently sees them coming, and 
asks their business in a hearty manner that conveys no 
suggestion of infirmity, and troublesome tramps have 
often been frightened away by the energetic voice which 
responded to their undesired approach. John Walther, 
too, is able to back his words with a strong arm, if neces- 
sary, against any one offering provocation, and he can 
defend himself just as effectively as if he had perfect 
eyesight. He knows the difference between friend and 
stranger even before a word has been spoken or a foot- 
fall heard, the intuition present more or less in every 
human mind being, in his case, acutely developed. The 
very atmosphere seems to convey to him the character of 
the person who is coming near. John Walther is in all 
respects one of the most remarkable examples of compar- 
ative success under the burden of physical infirmity that 
have been brought to public attention. 



XVII. 

THE BUTTER KING. 

SEVENTY MILES OF COWS AND SEVEN MILLION 
POUNDS OF BUTTER. 



Johx Newman, an English lad, came to this country 
when seventeen years old. He had a trade, that of a 
draper, and he worked for three dollars a week. He is 
now the butter king of the country, skimming the cream 
from an average of half a million quarts a day. 

Newman was born in Bishop-Stortford, England, in 
1842. There were eight boys in the family, more than 
could readily find labor ; while there was no prospect in 
the hamlet for a man, an apprentice might find a place. 
At fourteen young Newman was apprenticed to a draper 
for three years, with no pay the first year but his board ; 
a little pay the second year, and a trifle more the third. 
There are indications in his later success that he thor- 
oughly and faithfully learned his trade ; but he had a 
dull prospect before him, certainly no vista of prosperity. 
Things were in this condition when his Chicago aunt, 
Mrs. Robert Pinkerton, stirred him up with stories of 
American labor and American rewards. He yielded to 
her persuasion, and when his aunt returned to America 
John Newman sailed with her. But so rough was the 
voyage, and so severely did Neptune handle the English 
lad that when he arrived in New York he was not at all 

99 



100 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

disposed to sing that " Britannia rules the waves ; " he, 
even now, has such unpleasant memories of the way in 
which he of the trident shook him up on that voyage, 
that he has resolved never to see dear old England again, 
until he goes over a suspension bridge from Sandy Hook 
to Land's End. 

THREE DOLLARS A WEEK IN CHICAGO. 

The travellers reached Chicago on a bright October 
morning in 1859, a year and a half before the beginning 
of the Civil War. The centre of the business section was 
then in the region of Randolph and Lake streets. The 
big houses of the day were Ross & Foster and Potter 
Palmer. Rivalry between these two gave the English 
lad an uplifting wave. He applied at once to Mr. 
Palmer for a position in the cloth department ; this was 
on the very Saturday afternoon of his arrival in the 
great city. He started in on Monday morning, and re- 
ceived his three dollars at the end of the week, which 
covered his expenses with his landlord, lacking half a 
dollar. Like a crab, he was advancing backward. 

But that faithful three years of apprenticeship in Eng- 
land began to tell. He showed that he knew cloth and 
knew how to sell it. The rival firms had him back and 
forth. Mr. Palmer went to New York and the rival firm 
tempted him with larger salary. Palmer got him back 
on his return. Thus he " see-sawed between the two 
great rival houses." But he was always discontented 
because he had no store of his own. 

His chance came. The Crosby Opera House was to be 
opened ; he made application for the management of mis- 
cellaneous matters in the auditorium of the house. 
"There are thirteen hundred applicants already," said 
Mr. Crosby to the little English fellow with the funny 



THE BUTTER KING. 101 

little coat. " All right," replied Newman, "I am willing 
to be the thirteen hundred and first." His letters of 
recommendation gave him the prize, which he knew how 
to use. He hired the doorkeepers, ran the ushers and 
programmes, and owned, later, a hundred and twenty- 
five pairs of opera-glasses, which he rented. This was 
his first real business of his own. 

Newman went to Elgin to visit the Pinkerton boys on 
their Dundee farm; this was at the close of the Civil 
War. The famous country store in Elgin was on one of 
the five corners about the centre circle owned by the 
McNeils. This store he bought, and his sign went up in 
1865. Twice he was burned out, but each time he had 
a new stock two days after the fire. 



THE ELGIN COWS AND CREAMERIES. 

How he came to cast longing and loving glances upon 
the Elgin cow we do not know. It was probably the 
creamery that excited his love, and the cow for the sake 
of the creamery. For Lowrie, of the " Chicago Times- 
Herald," tells us that "Mr. Newman's aggregate cow was 
now composed, possibly, of twenty individuals. They 
gave enough milk to run a little factory, for which a 
little spring brook turned the wheel that drove the 
churn. The cow began to grow. It drew into its com- 
posite hide the aristocrats of the immediate Elgin district 
— proud animals that drink nothing but warm water in 
the winter, and live on clover blossoms in the summer, 
and cooked food in the cold weather. It grew to include 
the old-fashioned brindle cow of the careless farmer who 
thinks that all that looks like milk is milk. It has ex- 
panded until it is seventy miles long from end to end — 
a solid mottled procession of milkers." Think of a pro- 



102 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

cession of cows that would reach from New York to 
Philadelphia ! 

" This aggregate cow now has fifty-rive thousand mem- 
bers in its make-up, with large numbers of representatives 
in fifty-two towns. There is hustle and excitement at 
daylight as the force of dairymen go forth with big tin 
buckets to gather the crop from the herd. The milk is 
put into great cans, and long before the whistle sounds 
for the city workingman to march to his shop, this army 
of dairy-farmers is rattling over the country roads bound 
for one of the fifty-two factories which Newman built or 
bought" — the same English fellow who started with 
Potter Palmer at three dollars a week, forty years ago. 

" The lines of wagons form in single file at the intake 
doors, and the contents of 14,600 cans — equalling about 
two-thirds of the milk-consumption of Chicago — are 
poured into the fifty-two vats, from which machines 
whirl off the cream, in steady streams, rejecting the blue 
remnant with twice the accuracy of a woman with a 
spoon." 

The butter-king does not buy the milk, for milk is a 
very uncertain quantity. He buys the cream in the 
milk. Milk differs so much in the proportion of solid 
matter, the butterine material, that to buy so many quarts 
of the lacteal fluid would be an impossible way of doing 
business. The matter is calculated thus : An expert takes 
a sample every day from each can, which is put into a 
bottle marked with the patron's name; the aggregate 
samples are tested for the week for the percentage of 
butter fat or cream. Five pounds of butter to a hundred 
t>f milk is considered a high rate. The slip-shod farmer's 
contribution may not test over two pounds of butter to 
the hundred pounds of milk. Newman's system has been 
one of the great factors in making the Elgin district the 



THE BUTTER KIXG. 103 

most famous butter country in the world. It even puts 
its product on sale in some of the English cities. 

THE CREAMERY FARM AREA. 

The aggregate Newman farm for cows contains about 
250,000 acres ; and Newman receives between seven and 
eight million pounds of butter a year, an almost incom- 
prehensible bulk of cream-fruit. "A stack of the tubs 
would build a high fence around the great pyramid. A 
day's output would spread a slice of bread as big as 
Cook county — and spread it good and thick. A year's 
output spreads — a bewildering slice." 

This English lad has served as president of the Elgin 
Board of Trade, and of the Board of Education. He is 
a good example of what boys of sterling qualities can do 
on American soil, no matter from what land they come 
to our hospitable shores. 



XVIII. 

HOW TO SUCCEED IN BANKING: 

HONESTY AND STRENGTH OF WILL; COURTESY, 
ECONOMY, SELF-CULTURE. 



President Williams, of the Chemical Bank, New 
York, has had sixty years' experience in banking. 

" Does the banking business require any peculiar 
talent in those who pursue it ? " Mr. Williams was asked. 

" No/' he replied, " any intelligent, fairly educated man 
or boy may enter upon it with a chance of success. He 
must, however, be scrupulously, even rigidly, honest, and 
strong-willed. These qualities are absolutely indispens- 
able. A young man may possess the former, but if the 
latter be lacking in his character he would better seek 
some employment involving less temptation than bank- 
ing. The first thing we do when we contemplate engag- 
ing a young man is to satisfy ourselves that he is honest 
and of a strong will ; the rest does n't bother us ; having 
such material to work with we can soon make a banker." 

THE VALUE OF COURTESY. 

" What conduced to your success from the start ? " 

" Politeness. When I became assistant paying-teller 

I at once recognized the necessity of uniform courtesy to 

all. It was then that the formative influences of early 

life became of practical value to me. My childhood had 

104 




GEORGE G WILLIAMS. 



PRESIDE XT WILLIAMS. 105 

been spent in a professional atmosphere. Culture and 
refinement surrounded me at home, and I 'd have been a 
pretty poor specimen of humanity if I had not imbibed 
some of it. My father and mother took no pains to con- 
ceal their contempt for duplicity and cowardice. I learned 
to share their esteem for those qualities, and have tried 
to impart my feelings in this respect to all those who 
came under me in the bank. 

"I at first observed that many a shabby coat hid a 
package of bonds or a snug sum of money, and that 
magnificent attire did not always cover a millionaire. 
This knowledge suggested to me the prudence, as well as 
justice, of being courteous on all occasions ; and I have 
always made it a rule* of the bank that its employees 
must be courteous to every one. Many an important 
customer is lost to a bank through the incivility or neglect 
of an employee. We act on the principle that an ounce 
of politeness saves a ton of correction, and that no institu- 
tion can become so great or independent as to success- 
fully ignore the rules of courtesy. 

" I cannot too emphatically impress upon young men," 
continued Mr. Williams, "the absolute indispensability 
of politeness. In this bank the officers and clerks are 
always civil to whosoever enters the doors, and the ex- 
ample thus set clerks and messenger boys coming in here 
has borne good fruit, as we have been told by their em- 
ployers. If I had twenty tongues I 'd preach politeness 
with them all — for a long experience has taught me that 
its results are tangible and inevitable. It is the Aladdin's 
lamp of success" 

BANKING AS A PROFESSION. 

" Ts banking a profession or a trade ? " 

"Neither and both. It depends largely upon the man. 



106 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

Some men will make a trade of a profession, while others 
lift a trade np to the standard of a profession." 

" Please give an illustration ? " 

" Some men go into a bank with no other ambition 
than to be nseful machines ; at a salary, and in a position 
for life. This is by no means an illandable ambition, as 
such men have doubtless recognized their inability to 
grasp questions of finance ; and their desires are measured 
by their capacity. These intellectual machines are an in- 
valuable part of the mechanism of a bank, and if the 
president be wise he will treat them well, pay them fairly, 
and try to keep them contented. Of course, the men I 
refer to are often brilliantly able men, but they are phil- 
osophically resigned to a good, steady situation, that 
secures to themselves and their families a comfortable 
income." 

WHEN HE LEARNED A GREAT LESSON. 

" When did you learn your first great lesson in bank- 
ing ? » 

" When I became a discount clerk. The handling of 
commercial paper is one of the most difficult of the func- 
tions of a bank. Any fairly educated man can acquire 
the technical features of banking, but the science of bank- 
ing is the study of men. Now, the discounting of paper 
peculiarly involves such a study. In this department I 
learned that the bases of all great institutions are in the 
character of the men who control them, and not in the 
brick and mortar, steel rails, or money which are behind 
them. 

PERSONAL ECONOMY. 

" A man may be a member of a most reputable and 
wealthy concern, but if his habits are expensive, beyond 
what his means warrant, be very careful about his paper, 



PRESIDENT WILLIAMS. 107 

or his firm's. He may not be living actually in excess of 
his income, but he is in a dangerous way. This principle 
applies equally to great corporations, which from time 
to time require loans on their securities. 

"Finance is so intimately connected with all human 
affairs, that the man at the helm of a great bank must 
watch all points of the compass for warnings of impend- 
ing storms. It is the study and knowledge of extraneous 
matters in their relation to finance that make banking a 
profession. 

HASTE TO BE RICH. 

"I have no sympathy," said Mr. Williams, upon an- 
other point, " with any man's ambition to become rich 
over night. Such an ambition is unwholesome and 
dangerous, and is the offspring of aggravated avarice and 
ill-advised enterprise. One can count on the fingers of a 
single hand, almost, all the men in this country who have 
suddenly acquired riches and have retained them. 

" Why ? Because it takes longer to learn how to take 
care of wealth than it does to learn how to acquire it. As 
the founder of the house of Rothschild once said : 'It is 
easier to make money than to keep it.'' A great many men, 
however, who have been years laying the foundations of 
great fortunes, have become famous in a day, but to them, 
of course, I do not refer." 

THE SAVING HABIT FOR YOUNG MEN. 

" What advice, Mr. Williams, would you give young 
men ? " 

" A young man should not only live within his income, 
no matter how small, but should save a little. This may 
be hard to do, but it is indispensable ; and I don't know 
of a successful man, who has made his own money, who 
has not had to do it. 



108 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

THE READING HABIT FOR YOUNG MEN. 

"He should remember that knowledge increases his 
capacity to make money, and so should devote his even- 
ings to study and reading. He should also avoid bad 
company, not only in people, but in books and newspapers. 
Self-denial is at times painful, but it is part of the fiery 
ordeal that produces the true metal. The value of time 
is too little appreciated, and cannot be measured by 
money. 

TEMPTATION. 

" A young man should be careful to avoid temptation 
beyond what he has strength of mind to resist. Tempta- 
tion is necessary, and strengthens character, if resisted ; 
but it is a very dangerous thing to trifle with. 

The great trouble with most country boys who come to 
the city is that they have n't sufficient stamina to resist 
temptation. All such would do better to stay at home. 
The cause of disaster to so many country boys in the 
city is not in themselves so much as in their surround- 
ings. They are sociably inclined, but have as a rule no 
society, save that which they pick up, and which too often 
proves not only unprofitable, but actively pernicious. 
The city boy on the other hand has the advantages of 
home and high social influences to guide and restrain 
him." 

THE FIRST PRINCIPLE OF SUCCESS. 

"What, Mr. Williams, do you consider the first essen- 
tial of success ? " 

" The fear of God." 

It was a significant answer, which came so quietly, yet 
so quickly, so gently, yet so uncompromisingly, from the 
man who has, for nearly half a century, practically shaped 
the policy and controlled the affairs of the mightiest 



PRESIDENT WILLIAMS. 109 

financial institution of the western hemisphere — the 
Chemical National Bank. 

" What do you consider the most laudable ambition of 
man ? " 

" Live to build up a temple within yourself. Fear God 
and do your duty — that means, to yourself and to your 
fellowmen. God has given you the rough marble ; shape 
it into divine form or shatter it, as you will. It all rests 
with you." 

president Williams' personality. 

He is a son of Connecticut, and descended from one of 
the most distinguished Welsh-New England families. 
His remote ancestor, Robert Williams, a cousin of Roger 
Williams, settled at Roxbniy, Massachusetts, shortly 
after the landing of the Pilgrims. From this sturdy 
Welshman descended the third president of Yale Col- 
lege, and also Colonel Ephraim Williams, the founder of 
Williams College. In this branch of the family is num- 
bered William Williams, a signer of the Declaration of 
Independence, David Williams, one of the three captors 
of Major John Andre, and General Jonathan Williams, 
who founded the Engineer Corps at West Point. 

Doctor Datus Williams, the father of the subject of 
this sketch, resided and practised for nearly half a cen- 
tury in East Haddam, Connecticut, and was one of the 
leading men of the State. George G. Williams was born 
at East Haddam, in 1826, and was educated in the public 
schools and in Brainard Academy. It was at first his 
purpose to go to college and prepare for the bar ; but at 
fifteen years of age he was offered a position as first 
assistant paying-teller of the Chemical Bank, which he 
accepted, and five years later succeeded to the position 
of paying-teller. 

The next step in his promotion was to the discount 



110 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

desk, and in 1855 he was made cashier, to succeed his 
old friend, John Q. Jones, who had been raised to the 
presidency of the bank. In 1878, upon the death of Mr. 
Jones, Mr. Williams was made president. A friend saicL 
that Mr. Williams had been practically president of the 
bank for forty-four years, as the duties and cares of the 
head of the institution devolved upon him long before he 
was president in name. 

The Chemical National Bank was incorporated in 1823 
as the Chemical Manufacturing Company. It was re- 
organized in 1844, with a capital of $300,000, in 3,000 
shares of $ 100 each. No dividend was declared for five 
years ; as the policy of the bank was to gain public confi- 
dence by accumulating a large surplus, and the profits 
were put into the reserve fund. As a pioneer in the 
principles of security and strength in banking the Chem- 
ical Bank has been successful, and it is due very largely 
to Mr. Williams' rigid adherence to these principles that 
the bank occupies its present proud position. At the end 
of the first five years the dividends paid upon the bank 
stock amounted to fifteen per cent, every two months, 
with an additional ten per cent, annually, making one 
hundred per cent, a year. The bank's surplus is now 
more than six millions, while, since 1888, a dividend of 
one hundred and fifty per cent, per annnm has been paid. 
The bank has issued no circulating notes, and the capital 
is still the same as in 1844. On the rarest of rare occa- 
sions shares of Chemical Bank stock are sold, usually in 
the settlement of some estate. The market value to-day 
for each $100 share is about $4,500. 

one of new york's leading financiers. 
Mr. Williams is one of the men of whom New York 
and the whole country may be justly proud, as he has 



PRESIDENT WILLIAMS. Ill 

never failed to put his shoulder to the wheel, with other 
financiers, in times of great national financial stress. In 
1893 Mr. Williams was president of the New York Clear- 
ing House Association, and an ex-officio member of the 
committee, now historic, which so courageously checked 
the progress of the panic, prevented a disastrous collapse, 
and turned the tide to a restoration of confidence. Mr. 
Williams is connected with the Union Trust Company, 
the United States Life Insurance Company, the Eagle 
Fire Insurance Company, the Fidelity and Casualty Com- 
pany, and the Pennsylvania Coal Company. 

He is not particularly a club man, but belongs to the 
Metropolitan and the Riding Clubs, and is a member of 
the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the New England 
Society. 

In 1867 Mr. Williams married Virginia King, of Mas- 
sachusetts. Mrs. Williams is a graduate of Rutgers 
Female Seminary, of New York City. 



XIX. 

LINCOLN BANK: 

A BOY PUT UPON HIS HONOR; THE ELEMENTS OF 

SUCCESS. 



Thomas L. James, President of Lincoln Bank, New 
York, has a kindly face yet fearless. He impresses one 
at sight as of a strong vigorous nature, honest to the 
core. An erect and large-framed man, his manners are 
simple and courteous. 

His grandparents came to this country from Wales 
about the year 1800. Among his ancestors was the cele- 
brated Arctic explorer, Captain Thomas James, after 
whom James Bay was named. 

HIS FATHER PUT HIM ON HONOR. 

When I asked what particular home influence was 
most potential in forming his character, he replied : 

" My father and mother never watched me, that I 
know of. They relied entirely on my honor. This 
developed in me a spirit of truthfulness and responsi- 
bility which has been of immense advantage to me. My 
father's theory was : ' If you treat a boy as if you 
thought he were honest you will bring out all the better 
instincts of his nature.' " 

General James was born in Utica, New York. After 
being graduated from the high school of that city he 

112 



THOMAS L. JAMES. 113 

entered the service of the proprietor of the Utica 
" Liberty Press," as an apprentice, to learn the print- 
er's trade. 

" My first experience," said he, " was in folding and 
rolling newspapers, for which I got a dollar a week at 
the start. After a while my weekly salary reached the 
munificent sum of a dollar and a half, and I started 

A SAVINGS BANK ACCOUNT. 

" When at length I got two dollars a week I thought 
that the world contained little more to be looked for. The 
horizon of my ambition was circumscribed by the pos- 
sibilities of my native town. Beyond it I had hardly 
dared, even in imagination, to penetrate. 

"In those daj^s," Mr. James said to me, "apprentice 
boys boarded in the families of their employers, who 
took a kindly interest in them, and saw that they kept 
good habits and good company, and that their leisure 
hours were devoted to profitable uses. I cannot too 
strongly emphasize the great benefit of such a custom. 
Boys, instead of hanging about on street corners, enjoyed 
the good and refining influence of home life, and the 
society of reputable men and women. Drinking, gam- 
bling, and other vices were not tolerated ; and when a 
boy left such a home he had a good strong body and a 
good strong moral character to enter the battle of life 
with. Another great advantage of this custom was that 
the employer and employee were brought into close per- 
sonal contact. They exchanged views from their re- 
spective standpoints. Each was taught to sympathize 
with and understand the other. It was an association of 
labor with capital, and I know that if there were more 
of that sort of thing to day there would be fewer strikes, 
and no occasion for walking delegates. 



114 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

"That custom had its effect on my life, and it has 
been a cardinal point with me to have my door always 
open to my employees to come and talk with me on their 
personal affairs or their duties." 

AS A NEWSPAPER MANAGER. 

General James's first newspaper venture was when he 
purchased the " Madison County Journal," which was a 
Whig organ published in Hamilton, N.Y. 

In politics he was singularly courteous and considerate, 
judiciously advocating his views without alienating those 
who thought otherwise. 

President Grant appointed General James to the post- 
mastership of New York. Here he did such important 
work in increasing the postal facilities that the commer- 
cial public, regardless of political creed, was prepared to 
demand his retention in office in case a Democrat should 
succeed Grant as President. 

" I made myself familiar with the minutest details of 
the work," said Mr. James to me upon this point. " I 
found it was largely a matter of knowing the men — of 
finding out the individual capacity of each. A man, in 
order to be worked economically, must not be overworked; 
he must be taught that those in a position of authority 
over him are actuated by a spirit of justice in their treat- 
ment of him. There must always be a feeling of good 
fellowship between superior and subordinate, a oneness 
of purpose in the work." 

THE STAR-ROUTE PROSECUTION. 

General James's career as postmaster-general under 
Garfield, although brief, was famous for several reasons. 
He discovered an annual deficit of about two millious of 



THOMAS L. JAMES. 115 

dollars, which had existed previous to 1865, and had 
varied from year to year. Reorganization and retrench- 
ment were in order. A wholesale reduction of the post- 
office force took place. The reductions that were made 
in the expenses of the " star-route " and steamboat ser- 
vices alone amounted to more than two millions of dol- 
lars, and the cooperation of General James with the 
department of justice in the "star-route" prosecutions 
was one of the great events of his career. Subsequently 
he sent a report to Congress advocating the expediency 
of two-cent letter postage. The fame of his post-office 
reforms both in New York and Washington became so 
great that experts were sent from foreign governments to 
investigate his methods. 

After serving for ten months as chief of the postal 
service General James resigned, and returned to New 
York to take the presidency of the Lincoln Bank, which 
he still holds. 

ELEMENTS OF SUCCESS. 

As our brief interview was coming to a close, I asked 
— " Do you consider a young man's chances as good to- 
day as they were when you were a boy ? " 

" Yes," he replied, " they are much better ; particularly 
in the West, in the mining and railway engineering pro- 
fessions." 

" What do you regard as the greatest element of suc- 
cess in the men you have known ? " 

" Intense earnestness, pluck, and perseverance. There 
is very little of such a thing as genius in the world. 
When a man is called a genius it generally means that 
he has gotten to know more about a certain thing than 
anybody else. It is n't genius that makes a horse go in 



116 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

two-twenty : it is first, that he is a good horse ; and next, 
that he is thoroughly trained to perform the task." 

u To what do you attribute your success as a banker ? " 

" Being here early and staying late ; and having an 
admirable board of directors, not an ornamental board, 
merely figureheads, — but actual directors." 

" What would you advise a young man to do in order 
to succeed ? " 

" Live within his income." 



XX. 



THE VALUE OF ENERGY, ALERTNESS, SELF- 
CONTROL : 

THE POSSIBILITIES OF ACHIEVEMENT DEPICTED BY 
ONE WHO HAD A GREAT CAREER IN INDIA. 



" The world was never before so rich in opportunities 
for a young man as it is to-day," said Sir Richard Temple 
to the writer, recently. " The old saying that there is 
plenty of room at the top is as true to-day as it ever was. 
And this room is not reserved for age and experience. It 
is for the young man if he will gain it by hard work, and 
hold it with the ability and integrity which a position of 
responsibility demands." 

Such words from such a man should inspire every 
youth who reads them, for Sir Richard began at the bot- 
tom and earned for himself an extraordinary career. 

To start life with a modest clerkship in the East India 
Company, and to rise to the governorship of multi- 
millions of her majesty's Indian subjects, is surely a re- 
markable achievement. t 

Yet Richard Temple did this, and more. The story of 
his life is exemplary ; it is fascinating and full of golden 
lessons. 

When I arrived at Worcester, I found the Temple 
carriage waiting, and then followed an hour's delightful 
ride over hill and dale, along winding roads, hedge-bor- 

117 



118 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

dered, from which sloped fair fields in such perfect cul- 
tivation that the country seemed like one vast, well-kept 
park. 

Turning from the highway into the Temple estate, the 
road wound through avenues of tall trees, between which 
one could obtain a glimpse, now and then, of " The Nash," 
a quaint and many-gabled old red house with tall chim- 
neys, and ivy clambering about the latticed windows. A 
wonderful old house it is, worthy of a volume in itself. 

For a man who has lived so busy a life serving his 
country Sir Richard is a thoroughly travelled man, and 
it is remarkable what a profound and varied knowledge 
he possesses of all countries and peoples. It is many 
years since he visited the United States, yet he retains 
the liveliest memories of the distinguished men he met, 
and of the cities he visited. He was governor of India 
at the time President Grant made his famous tour of 
the world, and it devolved upon him to receive and enter- 
tain our great warrior. It is a memory he cherishes, for 
he recalled to mind incidents of that time as if they hap- 
pened but yesterday. 

After dinner he took me to walk about the grounds, 
pointing out the beauties of the garden and hothouses, for 
he is a devoted lover of flowers ; and, while we walked, he 
talked to me about the object of my visit, — since I had 
asked him for words of counsel for youthful readers in 
America. 

" Yes," he said ; " this is the age of young men, and 
the pity is that they do not realize it more. What 
power, what wonderful 

POSSIBILITY OF ACHIEVEMENT 

there is in youth. Du Maurier has said, speaking of 
human possibilities, that each of us stands within a tri- 



SIR RICHARD TEMPLE. 119 

angle, the sides of which he called heredity, birth, and 
education ; that we can act and achieve only within these 
set limits. It serves well enough as a figure, but too 
many young men rest supinely within the triangle who 
might step beyond it. 

"I am what I am! That was my motto. Heredity 
certainly stands for something, but achievement stands 
for more. I began my work when quite young. At 
twenty-two I was in command. At twenty-five I held a 
most important position. That should be the rule. If a 
man is to do anything let him do it while young. At 
twenty-five he should be in the fullness of mental and 
bodily strength. At fifty he is no better, save for a 
certain polish. 

" The mistake many young men make is in their 
ignorance of themselves, and their lack of 

SELF-COXTROL. 

An ancient philosopher has said that he who conquers 
himself is greater than he who takes a city. How can a 
young man expect to conquer in the battle of life if he 
has not learned first to become master of himself ? 

" Temper has ruined many a man. It should be abso- 
lutely controlled in public and in private life. There is 
nothing else that will cause such a waste of the vital tis- 
sues as anger. Perhaps you noticed that Latin inscrip- 
tion over the fireplace in the oak room, — pulcherrimum 
genus victorias seipsum vincere, — 'the fairest kind of vic- 
tory is self-conquest.' It was the motto of my ancestors : 
it has been mine, and has influenced all my life. 

"The days of youth should be spent in preparation; 
but it should be preparation of the right sort. A young 
man should early make up his mind what he wants to 
do ; and then prepare for that with all his heart. 



120 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

" Failures come in life, not always from lack of ability, 
but from lack of 

ENERGY AND ALERTNESS. 

Failures are more often the result of opportunities being 
missed through inertness than from any other cause. 

" Robert Peel did a great deal for our young men in 
his lectures. I remember how he urged always, that 
success can be achieved only by making use of every 
moment. i Never lose time ! Never lose time ! ' — that 
was the watchword he would have young men take. 

" If I were asked to epitomize advice to young men in 
the briefest phrase possible, I cannot think of anything 
better than to echo those three words, — ' Never lose 
time.' Failures come from doing nothing. 

" Young men should be active, ready for any and 
every emergency. I remember an object lesson I re- 
ceived when a very young man, which impressed me 
greatly. A famous boat had been constructed, and, 
strange to say, the builders had made a very remarkable 
error of judgment. They had made the boat so large 
that it was impossible to launch it. *I do not recall just 
the details of the affair, but I know all the great engi- 
neers in the country were called in for advice. But, 
great as they were, they were helpless, and it seemed as 
if the beautiful ship was doomed to destruction. 

" One day there came a young man, unknown to fame, 
who looked at the boat. He was a youth of resources, of 
ideas; moreover, he had courage to believe in himself. 
His plan for saving the ship was laid before the firm of 
shipbuilders. It was received not too warmly, bat he 
was given permission to try. That was all he needed. 
He lifted the boat right out of its perilous position. 

" i It can't be done ! ' That was the encouragement he 



SIR RICHARD TEMPLE. 121 

received. But it did not daunt him. He did it. Readi- 
ness and action, with good sound ideas as a basis, can 
overcome seemingly insuperable difficulties. That young 
man eventually became one of the greatest engineers of 
the century. 

" That is what young men should remember, to be 
always ready and to be energetic. This, you will see at 
once, means that one must be always preparing. He 
must be studying and striving always. 

OBSERVATION. 

" I think observation is a quality that is not made so 
much of as it should be. No matter what a man's busi- 
ness, he should put his best thought into it. It matters 
not whether he is a laborer or a prime minister. He is 
more valuable to himself and his employer if he is a 
thinker. He cannot be such unless he observes keenly, 
trains his eyes to take in everything about him, and his 
mind to reflect upon it. 

" There is no better training for this than to cultivate 
a taste for drawing and painting. Every one should 
make it as much a part of his education as ' the three 
R's.' To be sure, it is very necessary that there should 
be a good mental balance, or else many would be led to 
think that they are great masters, and would have an 
absurd desire to become artists; and so, going astray, 
they would lead a miserable existence by struggling to 
become artists ; when, if they had simply made that a 
pastime, a recreation, and followed some more sensible 
work, they would become more happy and useful in the 
great beehive of life, where there is room only for honest, 
energetic workers. 



122 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 



SPECIALISTS. 

" What do I think of the tendency toward specializ- 
ing in every business ? Ah, that is a peculiar result of 
the mode of life that has developed toward the close of 
this century. It is very different from what it was even 
twenty-five years ago. 

" It is very good for a young man to become a special- 
ist, because it is a necessity of the times. But I am of 
the opinion that it can be carried too far. No man 
should so utterly wrap himself up in one phase of busi- 
ness as to make him ignorant of what is going on about 
him in other ways, and especially should he guard 
against becoming a specialist in any line of business to 
the extent of ignoring other branches of the same gen- 
eral work. Yet this is done constantly. 

" I will tell you a story that will illustrate this. When 
I was in India one of my staff officers was a mathemati- 
cian of unparalleled brilliancy ; but while he was squar- 
ing the circle a riot was arising. 

" Knowledge is the great thing to possess. It holds 
to-day and always will. Knowledge is power. First, 
acquire general knowledge, then special. Profound 
learning is a splendid thing, but knowledge is better. 

FAILURES IN LIFE. 

" What causes failures ? Many things. I think suc- 
cess is due largely to heredity. What I mean by suc- 
cess being hereditary is that birth counts for a good 
deal j that one may inherit qualities and gifts which, if 
put to the best use, by an energetic spirit, will insure the 
highest form of success, — on the other hand, if abused, 
they stand for nothing. I have seen many young men 
possessing eminent gifts, starting out well in life, make 



SIR RICHARD TEMPLE. 12.") 

terrible failures. The reasons for it have been many, 
but chief among them may be mentioned, I think, lack of 
energy, and an improper knowledge — an inability I 
might say — to realize what life means, and why they 
are here. 

" I will quote for you a classic line that is a favorite 
of mine, and one I remember always. I hope it may be 
an inspiration to the youth of America as it has been to 
me. It is : 

" 'Strive to excel in whatever you undertake, and to win in open 
competition.'" 



XXI. 

THE RELATION OF PLODDING TO SUCCESS : 
THE PREMIER OF CANADA. 



" It is the gift of plodding." These words were spoken 
to me, one afternoon recently, by Wilfrid Laurier, the 
brilliant Canadian premier, as he sat in his sitting-room 
at the Shoreham Hotel. 

Sir Wilfrid is a remarkably fine specimen of physical 
manhood. He is tall and well proportioned, with a fine 
head, clean shaven face, and brown hair which is fast 
changing to gray ; and, as he wears it rather long, it adds 
to the classic cast of his features. He has the bluest of 
blue eyes, and a frank way of looking at the one he is 
addressing which stamps his words with sincerity. 

He was speaking of the element of success in life; and, 
as he uttered the words quoted above, he struck the arm 
of his chair with a large, shapely hand, which bore the 
trace of character to every pointed finger tip. 

" It is not a popular axiom just now, when all the 
world seems in a mad rush, but success comes from plod- 
ding," he went on. "The young man who determines 
above all else to become rich, and who closes his eyes to 
everything but the almighty dollar, who stops at nothing 
and spares no time or pains in the effort for wealth, but 
who, at the end of his life, can write his check for a mil- 

124 



SIR WILFRID LAURIER. 125 

lion dollars, no doubt considers that lie has won success ; 
the scholar who burns the midnight oil, who turns deaf 
ears to the siren voice of pleasure, and buries himself in 
his books, succeeds in winning knowledge ; the statesman 
who bends every energy toward mastering statecraft is 
successful in becoming the great leader of his party. 
They all succeed. And why ? Because they have pos- 
sessed the gift of plodding. 



" I was glancing over the Canadian papers just before 
you came in, and in one of them I saw a list of names of 
the young men who will shortly be admitted from a cer- 
tain school to the Canadian bar. I know two of these 
young men ; I know them well. One of them is un- 
usually bright ; I don't think I ever met a more fortu- 
nately equipped lad. He has a most receptive memory, 
and a pleasing manner of address. He can learn any- 
thing he undertakes ; and, in consequence, it was an easy 
matter for him to lead his classes, when he so deter- 
mined. He has the natural endowments to make a great 
lawyer ; and yet I doubt, I exceedingly doubt if he will 
ever become one, because he lacks perseverance; and, 
while he begins everything well, he seldom ends anything 
well. 

" The other lad has not such bright endowments — 
none of the flash and brilliancy of the first one ; but I 
feel morally certain that there is a great future before 
him. He is n't ashamed to plod ; he is grit all the way 
through. He undertakes a matter, and if it is hard he 
grapples with it ; he tussles with it, and he sticks to it 
until he conquers it. He is a French boy, but in his 
power of perseverance he is thoroughly Scottish; and 
that is why I say that some day he will become a great 



126 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

jurist. He will succeed, because he has the gift of 
plodding." 

EDUCATION. 

" And what do you consider is the most essential requi- 
site to a young person's success in the battles of life, Sir 
Wilfrid ? " 

" Most assuredly, in this age of the world, education 
must be the underlying foundation for the future success 
of either a young man or woman. They should deter- 
mine that no sacrifice is too great, no struggle too hard, 
which will give them thorough educatioD. The higher 
the education the better the chances in life will be. The 
uneducated youth is handicapped to-day ; ten years from 
now he will be hopelessly so, for each passing year will 
enhance the value of education. If money is the object, 
cultivated brains command money ; without them suc- 
cess in the professions is an impossibility, and there is 
no avocation which is not helped by them. For this 
reason the importance of an education as a stepping- 
stone to success can scarcely be over-estimated." 

PERSONAL. 

Sir Wilfrid is of French extraction. His ancestors 
were among those who left the land of " sunshine and 
romance," and founded " La Nouvelle France." The 
elder Laurier was a provincial land surveyor, and ex- 
pected his son to follow his profession ; but while still a 
mere boy Wilfrid showed the natural bent of his mind ; 
for, whenever he could do so, he would leave his school 
to go to the court room to listen to the legal contests going 
on there. His father very wisely encouraged this incli- 
nation, and placed him in the school of L'Assomption, 
where he received his college education, and after which 



SIR WILFRID LAURIER. 127 

he studied for the bar under the famous Rodolphe La 
Flainme, who, seventeen years later, was associated with 
him in the government under Alexander Mackenzie. 

A STRONG SENSE OF RIGHT AND WRONG. 

From his earliest youth Sir Wilfrid has always had a 
strong sense of right and wrong, and it is this instinct 
which has governed his professional life. No question 
has ever been too difficult for him to weigh its details, 
and to decide its merits; and, having thus decided, to be 
an unflinching advocate of what he deemed right. In 
consequence of this he has had frequently to face intense 
opposition, which lias called for high courage on his part. 
This was notably true in the attack he made on Ultra- 
montanism in 1877. He began his public life in 1871 ; 
in 1874 he entered the House of Commons, and soon be- 
came actively identified with the Liberal party. He has 
always been a devoted Roman Catholic, but shortly after 
he entered the House of Commons he became convinced 
that the best government is that which is separated from 
church interference, and he did not hesitate to say so. 
This brought him enemies, but when, in 1877, he made 
his fierce attack on Ultramontanism, and on the floor of 
the House declared that the priests of the parishes had 
no right to intimidate voters, he created vehement feel- 
ing, and many of his best friends thought he had com- 
mitted political suicide. He was defeated at the next 
election, but it was not long before time proved the wis- 
dom of his position, and he was returned to the House. 

In 1878 Alexander Mackenzie invited him into his 
cabinet, where he was given the portfolio of Inland Reve- 
nues. In 1896 he became premier of the Liberal-Con- 
servative government, a position he still holds. 

Sir Wilfrid is one of the well-known supporters of the 



128 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

temperance cause in the Dominion. He is a leader among 
men because he has a reputation for unsullied integrity, 
great executive ability, commanding eloquence, and be- 
cause he has a kindly heart, chivalrous instincts, and a 
thoroughly lovable nature. He married, in 1868, Miss 
La Fontaine, and the union has been a most happy one. 
Lady Laurier has proved herself as great a leader in so- 
ciety as her distinguished husband has been in politics, 
and their home in Quebec has always been noted for its 
hospitality. 



XXII. 
JOHN SHERMAN'S BOYHOOD. 



John Sherman was five years old, and his brother, 
Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman, eight, when their 
father died. The widowed mother was left with eleven 
children, the oldest, Charles, being eighteen years old, 
and at college ; the youngest, Fanny, an infant of three 
months. The family was not in poverty, but, consider- 
ing the number in it, " with spare means of support," to 
use John's phrase. The father, Charles Robert Sher- 
man, was the son of a Connecticut judge; he and Mary 
Hoyt Sherman rode to the wilderness of Ohio on horse- 
back, carrying the infant Charles on a pillow before 
them. This was in 1811. He became a lawyer, and a 
judge of the Supreme Court of Ohio. 

" My mother," says John, " was carefully educated at 
the then famous seminary at Poughkeepsie, New York. 
I never knew her to scold, much less to strike her chil- 
dren. The separation of the family was imperative, but 
the friends of my father were numerous. Charles entered 
Mr. Stoddard's family ; James accepted a clerkship at 
Cincinnati ; Tecumseh was adopted into the family of 
Hon. Thomas Ewing." After a couple of years of school- 
ing John was received into the home of his uncle, John 
Sherman, of Mount Vernon, fifty miles from the old 
homestead at Lancaster. 

129 



130 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

" My four years at Mount Vernon were well spent. I 
learned to translate Latin very well; and obtained some 
knowledge of algebra, geometry, and kindred studies." 
At twelve he returned to his mother's home at Lan- 
caster. 

" My brother, William Tecumseh, was three years my 
senior," he says, "and he and his associates of his own 
age rather looked down upon their juniors. Still, I had 
a good deal of intercourse with him, mainly in the way 
of advice on his part. At that time he was a steady 
student, quiet in his manners, and easily moved by sym- 
pathy or affection. I was regarded as a wild, reckless 
lad, eager in controversy and ready to fight. No one 
could then anticipate that he was to be a great warrior, 
and I a plodding lawyer and politician. I fired my first 
gun over his shoulder. He took me with him to carry 
the game, mostly squirrels and pigeons. He was then 
destined to West Point, and was preparing for it." 

John Sherman then spent two years at Howe Academy. 
Algebra and surveying were his favorite studies, in which 
he became proficient. 

" I now recall," he said, " many pleasing memories of 
what occurred at that period when the life of a boy is 
beginning to open to the future. It is the period of 
greatest danger and highest hope. Even at that early 
age I had day-dreams for the future, and my mother was 
the central picture. If fortunes could be made by others, 
why could not I make one ? I wished I were a man. 
It began to appear to me that I could not wait to go 
through college. What were Latin and Greek to me, 
when they would delay me in making my fortune ? " 

His brother Charles tried to persuade John to stick to 
his course ; but the boy was resolute to pay his own way. 
Before very long a good position was secured for him 



JOHN SHERMAN. 131 

in a surveying party, as a "rodman," under Colonel 
Curtis, and John began resolutely to prepare for it. He 
was only fourteen. The work was not to commence till 
spring. "I worked hard that winter,'' he says; "for 
hard work, I thought, is the way to fortune. 1 studied 
the mode of levelling. I saw a man on the Hocking 
Canal operate his instrument, take the rear sight from 
the level of the water in the canal, then by a succession 
of levels backward and forward carry his level to the 
objective point. Then the man was kind enough to 
show me how, by simple addition and subtraction, the 
result could be obtained. I was well advanced in arith- 
metic, and in mathematics generally, and was confident, 
even if I was only fourteen, that I could do the work." 

Business began; and he learned one lesson the first 
day. He and a friend started to walk to Beverly. It 
was only sixteen miles, and he insisted they could walk 
it after dinner. " I was a little tired," he says, " and I 
asked how far we had gone ; he said, ' a mile and a half.' 
I began then to appreciate my folly in not starting in 
the morning. It was sundown when we were six miles 
from Beverly, and I was completely tired out. We 
reached Beverly about ten o'clock, weary and hungry. 
This taught me a lesson I never forgot — not to insist 
upon anything I knew nothing about." 

He bore with fortitude the demolition of his tent by a 
storm, and the successive discomforts of a rodman's life; 
but he convinced the men that a boy of fourteen could do 
a man's work skilfully and well. 

He showed his sturdiness. A discussion took place 
upon temperance, a school-teacher and the rodman advo- 
cating the novel idea of total abstinence : the school- 
master was mobbed, but Sherman went untouched. 

Afterwards he was removed from his position for polit- 
ical reasons. 



132 TALKS WIT/I GREAT WORKERS. 

He studied law with his brother Charles, at Mansfield ; 
reading Blackstone, Coke, Kent, and Chitty. " We held 
famous moot courts," he says, "in which cases were tried 
with all the earnestness, industry, and skill that could 
have been evoked by real cases. I have always regarded 
our contests in this moot court as the most important 
part of my legal training." 

At nineteen he was ready for the bar, but could not be 
admitted until he was twenty-one. But his brother 
Charles found him skilful in directions which were dis- 
tasteful to himself ; and John was prepared to make a 
strong lawyer as soon as he could be admitted. 

While a rodman he had read much. " I occupied my 
leisure in reading novels, histories, and such books as I 
could easily get," he says. " Books were sent from Lan- 
caster, or borrowed in Beverly. I read most of the Brit- 
ish classics, the " Spectator," Shakespeare, Byron, and 
Scott. I read all I could find on the history of America. 

(i In the law office I read, in addition to the routine 
books prescribed by Judge Parker, a great variety of 
literary and historical works, and had, in effect, practised 
my profession a year or more in advance of my admission 
to the bar." 

Mr. Sherman made a home for his mother as soon as 
he was admitted to the bar. The defects of his early 
education were soon lost sight of, through his indomita- 
ble habits of self-culture during his long and honorable 
professional career. His ability as a lawyer, and as a 
practical business man, brought to him a national reputa- 
tion ; and his service in public life made friends for him 
throughout the Union, and greatly endeared him to his 
own neighbors in the Buckeye State. 



XXIII. 

HE WAS EQUAL TO HIS GREAT 
OPPORTUNITY. 



John Hay was twenty-one years old when he went 
into Abraham Lincoln's law office at Springfield, Illinois. 
The opportunity came to him through his uncle, Milton 
Hay, a prized opportunity, no doubt; yet the young 
man little realized how great and far-reaching in its influ- 
ence upon his life would be his association with Lincoln ; 
or that, because of it, just forty years later, and after 
displaying fidelity in successive positions to which he 
would be called, the premiership of the President's cabi- 
net would be offered him. Lincoln was then just fifty 
years old, a leader of the bar of the State, and long a 
champion of liberty, conspicuous in State and nation as 
the antagonist of Stephen A. Douglas. Lincoln was 
attracted to Hay, and loved and trusted him till the close 
of life. 

John Hay, the fourth son of Dr. Charles Hay, was 
born at Salem, Indiana, October 8, 1838. His ancestor, 
John, was the son of a Scottish soldier, who left his own 
country to serve the Elector-Palatine, after which he 
went to Kentucky. His two grandsons served in the 
Revolutionary War. John's grandfather became a brick- 
maker at Springfield, Illinois; he is said to have been 
noted for force of character. " The boy John grew up 

133 



134 TALKS WITH GREAT ^YORKERS. 

in the hardy outdoor life of the formative period of the 
middle West," says his biographer. " A good constitu- 
tion and a fair education were the results of his home 
surroundings, neither the body nor the mind suffering 
from want of development. The son of a physician, and 
grandson of a soldier, possessing the sturdy qualities of 
the Scots, but conversant with pioneer conditions, some- 
what rough, yet instinct with fresh and noble life, he 
was preparing for the future successes and duties before 
him. He was acquiring a thorough American educa- 
tion." 

His mother was a Rhode Islander, from Providence ; 
and Hay, at sixteen, matriculated at Brown University, 
where he was graduated in 1858. He became a member 
of the Theta Delta Chi fraternity, and he is said to be 
still an ardent fraternity man. He was decidedly and 
eminently gifted in composition, his college essays 
achieving distinction, and that, too, in a class which pro- 
duced journalists and literary men. 

THE EDUCATION OF A GREAT PRESENCE AND OF HEROIC 

TIMES. 

Intimate acquaintance with Abraham Lincoln was 
equal to a university education in the formation of char- 
acter, especially during the four years of a great war, seen 
and studied, with all its stirring events and eminent 
men, in the nation's capital and at the Executive Man- 
sion. 

When Lincoln went to Washington as President two 
men went with him as his secretaries. One was John G-. 
Nicolay, a Bavarian, who had been Lincoln's secretary 
at Springfield. Hay also went wifeh him, although six 
years younger than jSTicolay ; and these two men were 
associates with each other during four years of incessant 



JOl/.V HAY. 135 

activity in the service of their great chief. They were 
associated also in that last fond work of preparing a 
standard life of Abraham Lincoln, the fruit of many 
years of reflection and study upon the great man and the 
great events of the Civil War, concerning which they say 
they were so fully agreed that every part of it is the 
statement and sentiment of each. This " Life of Lin- 
coln" ran through two or three years of "The Century" 
before it was issued in book form. 

" We knew Mr. Lincoln intimately before his election 
to the Presidency," said Mr. Hay. "We came from 
Illinois to Washington with him, and remained by his 
side and in his service — separately or together — until 
the day of his death. We are the daily and nightly wit- 
nesses of the incidents and anxieties, the fears and the 
hopes which prevaded the Executive Mansion and the 
National Capital. 

" If we gained nothing else by our long association 
with Mr. Lincoln, we hope, at least, that we acquired 
from him the habit of judging men and events with 
candor and impartiality." 

Lincoln's confidence in this young man of twenty-five 
made him the President's adjutant and aid-de-camp, and 
gave him a position of service for several months under 
General Hunter and General Gilmore, with the rank of 
major; he became lieutenant-colonel and colonel by 
brevet, and later he was often known, especially 
among politicians and journalists, as " Colonel Hay." 
He was one of the score of persons who witnessed the 
death of the Martyr-President, whom he had loved and 
served. 

If he had chosen his career, and perhaps he did, 
he could not have travelled a better path than he did 
to secure personal development and expansion. Like 



136 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

a precious fabric, which is subjected to a succession of 
processes, each of which adds value to it, so John Hay 
was passed in rapid succession, from one European capi- 
tal to another, so that he could fully comprehend their 
peculiarities and their needs. At Paris, the great capital 
of France, he was first secretary of the legation from 
1865 to 1867 ; then, at the Austrian capital, he was 
charge d'affaires, in 1867 ; and at the Spanish capital he 
was General Sickles's secretary of legation, until 1870. 
It was as if he had a prolonged educational tour of these 
three great European countries, while all the time he 
was practising and studying diplomacy. 

THE NOBLE COMPANY OF AUTHORS. 

Like Lowell, whom he resembles in some essential 
respects, in fibre, in virility, polish, and sturdy, yet well- 
curbed Americanism, like Bancroft also, Hay was an 
author, and of both prose and verse, in each of which he 
wrote what has been read everywhere. His "Life of 
Lincoln" — for which he received $50,000 — would, of 
course, make him eminent among biographers ; yet it is 
a work which is said to be little known in England. The 
" Pike County Ballads," with the new literary creations, 
" Jim Bludso" and " Little Breeches," were written dur- 
ing three weeks of leisure, in 1871. "I accumulated 
thirty or forty," he said, "and these, with some I had 
written during my college days, were handed to Mr. 
Field, who made a volume of them. I had not intended 
to publish them in book form." " The Breadwinners," 
a striking story of Cleveland life, whose authorship was 
long a literary mystery, Colonel Hay recently acknowl- 
edged. His " Castilian Days," which has been compared 
with Howell's "Venetian Life," gives instructive and 
delightful sketches of Spanish scenes ^ind character, 



JO UN HAY. 137 

especially timely and interesting reading now. One of 
his most spirited poems, which shows his keen sympathy 
with Spain, begins : 

11 Land of unconquered Pelayo ! Land of the Cid Campeador, 
Sea-girdled mother of men ! Spain, name of glory and power ! " 

Some of Hay's "Distiches" display a penetrating 
study of human nature ; these are specimens : 

Who would succeed in the world should be wise in the use of his 

pronouns ; 
Utter the You twenty times where once you utter the I. 

Be not too anxious to gain your next-door neighbor's approval ; 
Live your own life, and let him strive your approval to gain. 

Try not to beat back the current, yet be not drowned in its waters ; 
Speak with the speech of the world ; think with the thoughts of the 
few. 

Make all good men your well-wishers, and then, in the years' 

steady sifting, 
Some of them turn to friends. Friends are the sunshine of life. 

That nothing might be wanting to this man, Avho did 
everything admirably, Hay was called to the staff of the 
" New York Tribune " for five years ; and when White- 
law Reid was absent in Europe for seven months Colonel 
Hay was the only one with whom he would leave the 
responsibility of that great paper. 

This man who asked for wisdom got, also, riches and 
a good wife together. He married one of the daughters 
of Amasa Stone, of Cleveland, an extraordinary and 
exceedingly wealthy man, who founded Adelbert College 
with a third of his property, in memory of his son. To 
John Hay he gave a beautiful home on Euclid avenue ; 



138 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

and Hay, who was practically penniless when he married 
Miss Stone, received from her father, it is said, from 
one to two million dollars. He also received the degree 
of LL.D., from his alma mater, a year ago. "Thou hast 
asked wisdom; thou shalt have riches and honor." 

Hay always has had great political influence in a quiet 
way, and was undemonstratively active in 1876, 1880, 
and 1884. He was a decided friend of McKinley, and, 
after Hanna, he was the leading spirit in the McKinley 
campaign councils. He is said to have set in motion the 
wave of McKinley enthusiasm. 

After all, he is only stepping one step higher ; for, as 
few may be aware, he was Assistant Secretary of State 
from 1879 to 1881. 

As the United States Minister at the Court of St. James, 
he made a host of friends in Great Britain ; and as Secre- 
tary of State, under President McKinley, he has been 
easily equal to his great opportunity. 




CHARLES M. SCHWAB. 



XXIV. 

THE WORKING MEN WHO WERE CARNEGIE'S 
PARTNERS. 

VIGOR AND SELF-RELIANCE, ABILITY AND FIDELITY, 
ONWARD EVER, ALWAYS UPWARD. 



Part I. 

Nowhere except in America, and seldom even there 
could such a story as this be told. It is the story of a 
man who rose without influence from poverty to wealth, 
who climbed the difficult ladder of achievement by force 
of will, who helped to make others wealthy at the same 
time, and who passed within a few years, from the 
humble environment of a stake driver in an engineer 
corps to the leadership of forty-five thousand men in an 
industry so vast that the mythical tales of the Titans of 
old are exceeded by the modern reality. Such is the 
marvellous record of Charles M. Schwab, so long the 
vigorous young president of the Carnegie Steel Company, 
who is now at the head of the great billion dollar steel 
plant on Staten Island. Little more than a score of 
years ago he was earning one dollar a day in the Car- 
negie works. He has now acquired a property of more 
than forty millions of dollars, and he is said to draw the 
biggest salary paid to a business man in the world. 

Why did this boy, among thousands of other boys who 
had the same chance, rise to fame, while they did not ? 

139 



140 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

What is the kernel in the nut ? How did he do it ? I 
went a thousand miles to find out. 

It was unnecessary for me to make an elaborate ex- 
planation of the spirit of my errand. Mr. Schwab said 
at once : u If my example will prove of interest or help 
to others you are welcome to it. There are certainly 
some lessons I have learned, and some rules of conduct I 
have observed, which are of general value." 

SELF-RELIANT AND VIGOROUS, HE AIMED TO EXCEL. 

We plunged at once into the story of his life : how he 
first acquired a public school education in his native 
village of Loretto, Pennsylvania, and, at fifteen years of 
age, drove a mail wagon between Loretto and Crescent, 
a neighboring town. A year later found him working in 
a grocery store at Braddock, at ten dollars a month and 
board. There he worked hard all day, and slept in the 
store at night as a watchman. Occasionally he was given 
a few hours for recreation, and these he invariably spent 
in the steel works at Braddock, which had a fascination 
for him. In 1880, to his great joy, he obtained a place 
in the Carnegie works. The plant, then, was not the 
great concern it is now, nor was the young man's position 
a lucrative one ; yet the opportunity to gratify his incli- 
nation was most welcome. He became stake driver in 
the engineer corps, at thirty dollars per month, during 
the erection of some buildings. In just seven years of 
study and work he became chief engineer, and was sent, 
in that capacity, to build the great Homestead steel plant, 
which he managed for two years after its completion. 
Then he was sent to be manager of the Edgar Thomson 
Steel Works for two years. 

" How do you explain your rapid promotion ? " I asked. 

" In the first place," replied Mr. Schwab, " I ahvays 



CHARLES M. SCHWAB. 141 

stood on my own feet — always relied upon myself. It is 
really a detriment to have any one behind you. When you 
depend upon yourself you know that it is only on your 
merit that you will succeed. Then you discover your 
latent powers, awake to your manhood, and are on 
your mettle to do your utmost. It is a very good motto 
to depend upon yourself. I am a great believer in self- 
reliant manliness, which is manhood in its noblest form. 

" There was one thing that I discovered very early, — 
that it would be well to make myself indispensable, instead 
of continually looking at the clock. Employers appreciate 
to the full men who may be trusted to do their work as 
if they were working for themselves. 

" We do everything in our power to make men realize 
their importance. Once a week, every Saturday, I have 
the heads of the various departments, upward of forty, 
take luncheon with me. ISTot a word of business is per- 
mitted during the meal ; but after everything is cleared 
away we discuss matters in hand and exchange opinions. 
Every one of the gentlemen present is at liberty to advise, 
to suggest, and to air his ideas. The value of these 
meetings is very great. On Monday the gentlemen who 
have lunched with me call their head men together, and 
have similar meetings. 

" When I first went to work for Mr. Carnegie I had 
over me an impetuous, hustling man. It was necessary 
for me to be up to the top notch to give satisfaction. I 
worked faster than I otherwise would have done, and 
to him I attribute the impetus that I acquired. My 
whole object in life then was to show him my worth and 
to prove it. I thought and dreamed of nothing else but 
the steel works. In consequence, I became his assistant. 
I attribute my first great success to hard and active work. 
I found that those who were quickest were those to be 
promoted. 



142 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

HE MASTERED METALLURGY, THE GLORY OF CHEMISTRY. 

" At that time science began to play an important part 
in the manufacture of steel. My salary, at the age of 
twenty-one, warranted me in marrying, so I had a home 
of my own ; I believe in early marriages, as a rule. In 
my own house I rigged up a laboratory, and studied chem.- 
istry in the evenings, determined that there should be 
nothing in the manufacture of steel that I would not 
know. Although I had received no technical education, 
I made myself master of chemistry, and of the laboratory, 
which proved of lasting value." 

The strength and superior qualities of American armor 
plate — the substantial strength of our battleships and 
cruisers — are largely due to Mr. Schwab, who raised 
the standard of armor ; and this may be followed back to 
his first experiments in his laboratory. 

" The point I wish to make," continued he, (i is that 
my experimental work was not in the line of my duty, 
but it gave me greater knowledge. Achievement is 
possible to a man who does something else besides his 
mere duty that attracts the attention of his superiors to 
him, as one who is equipping himself for advancement- 
An employer picks out his assistants from the best in- 
formed, most competent, and conscientious." 

ONWARD EVER, ALWAYS UPWARD. 

At this point I asked if Mr. Carnegie had not proved 
a factor in his encouragement. 

" Yes," said he, " Mr. Carnegie and others took a gen- 
eral interest in me, which I tried to foster by doing my 
level best. A man who is not susceptible to encourage- 
ment will not succeed. I never encourage those who are 
willing to continue in the even tenor of their ways. 



CHARLES M. SCHWAB. 143 

They are not extraordinary individuals. They attract no 
attention, are overlooked, or drop out. You see the 
point. A man must be wide awake and up to date. His 
future mostly depends upon himself." 

"Do you think the chances for a young man to-day 
are as great as they were when you began ? " 

" There were never before so many opportunities for the 
right kind of young men. For example, one of my head 
men told me that he had been three weeks trying to find 
a man competent to take charge of an important position, 
and when I last saw him he had not succeeded. Em- 
ployers everywhere are on the lookout for competent, 
pushing, ' get there ' men, and when they are found they 
do not easily part with them." 

It has been shown how Mr. Schwab tried to make him- 
self indispensable. One day, after he had risen to be 
general manager of the Carnegie Steel Company, a gen- 
tleman from England walked into the office, and offered 
him a larger salary than the President of the United 
States receives, if he would take charge of his English 
works. Mr. Schwab refused, but did not tell Mr. Car- 
negie. Some months afterwards Mr. Carnegie heard of 
it, and took pains to say to Mr. Schwab that he " must 
not think of it." 

" It is not what I want," he replied. 

" What is it you do want ? " asked Mr. Carnegie. 

" To be a partner in your company," said Mr. Schwab. 

He became one, and in 1896 was elected president. 

" Here is another point," he continued ; "first be master 
of what you undertake, and the money will follow." 

HE WHO SEEKS THE TOP MUST START AT THE BOTTOM. 

" But you believe in a college education ? " I ventured. 
"Xot for a business man. I have noted how few sue- 



144 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

cessful business men have received a college education. 
In the first place a man, to understand his business, must 
start at the bottom of the ladder and work himself up. 
To do so, he must commence when young, when he learns 
quickly and may be led. A college man seldom rivets his 
whole attention on his work. He is in dreamland most 
of the time, gives his evenings to society, and tries to 
combine work and pleasure. He is not wrapped up in 
his work. It is remarkable how few in our works who 
hold responsible positions have even received technical 
education. One day Mr. Wittkenstein, the Carnegie of 
Austria, attended my Saturday meeting. Glancing over 
those present, he asked : ' How many of these gentlemen, 
Mr. Schwab, received a technical education ? ' That had 
never occurred to me before, and, on inquiry, it was found 
that only three of those present had. The rest had risen 
from the ranks, and solely on their merits. Nothing else 
cuts any figure with us. It is a great mistake to think 
that young men are not wanted for responsible positions. 
Any prejudice that existed long since died. 

" I do not mean to say that I am not a believer in edu- 
cation," continued Mr. Schwab. "lama great believer 
in self-education after graduation from a high grade of 
public school. A man, to be successful even as a special- 
ist, should have a good general knowledge, and, therefore, 
ought to read and study much. A well-informed man is 
always the brighter for it. All through my life I have 
read and studied." 



THE STEEL WORKS. 145 



PART II. 
THE WORKS, AND THE SUPERINTENDENTS. 

The Carnegie Steel Works, when I visited them, — vast 
as they are, and wondrous in their suggestion of man's 
mastery over the forces of nature, and inspiring in the 
thought of their usefulness to a whole cityfnl of people 
and to the armies and navies of the nation, — did not 
impress' me so much as did the men who have made them 
what they are. There I found thirty-two splendid m,e- 
chanics and business men, some of them earning salaries 
of $50,000, $75,000, and even $100,000 a year, who were 
the working partners of Andrew Carnegie. 

I felt it a privilege to meet these men, to study them 
at close range, and to glean from each and all the absorb- 
ing story of the possibilities of a mechanic on American 
soil. 

Nearly every one of these keen-eyed, quick-brained, 
hard-muscled men had risen from the ranks. Mr. 
Schwab, who introduced me, said that some of them be- 
gan as day laborers. 

"Our six general superintendents, in charge of our 
seven great works," said he, " earned their positions by 
exceptional services tending toward greater perfection in 
material, and increase of output. They advanced step by 
step, according to the importance of their services. No 
one may rest on his laurels here who hopes for future 
advancement. There were thirty-two members in the 
firm, and those superintendents who were partners owe 
their partnerships to Mr. Carnegie, solely and entirely on 
account of his appreciation of their helpfulness to him 
in his business. 



146 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 



WHAT COMMON SCHOOL COMMON SENSE DOES. 

Thomas Morrison, the general superintendent of the 
Edgar Thomson Works, at Braddock, Pennsylvania, I 
found to be a forceful example of the self-made man. 
He was born in Dunfermline, Scotland, and received a 
common school education. He served an apprenticeship 
as a machinist and engineer; attended evening school to 
receive instruction in mechanical drawing, and then, 
wearying of the blacksmith shop, sought larger opportu- 
nities in Scotland and England. In 1886 he came to 
America and started in at the Homestead Works as a 
machinist. Through industry and hard work he was 
promoted to be foreman of the machine shop, and, later, 
assistant master mechanic. In 1889 he was given 
charge of the armor plate department. Then in 1891, 
after Mr. Carnegie had acquired the Duquesne works, 
Morrison went there as superintendent, and, in 1895, to 
the Edgar Thomson works, as general superintendent. 
These successive promotions he attributes entirely to 
industry and hard work. He talked interestingly, too, 
to the writer, on the plan and policy of the works. 

"It is one of the duties of the superintendent," he 
said, " to single out likely men, and it is policy for a 
man to do exceptional work and to make himself known 
and noticeable to his superiors. One of the telling 
points is loyalty to one's work — to never feel through 
with an undertaking till one has done his utmost. 

"It is a good way, that : to do more than is required of 
you, to bring yourself forward. The able, industrious, 
and clear-headed man is always in demand ; and, as I 
have said, it is one of the duties of the superintendent 
to bring such a man forward : we need him ;. but we 
can only know him by his work. Such is the history of 



THE STEEL WORKS. 147 

our head men in various stations — they practically com- 
pelled recognition. They stepped ahead of the ranks, 
and became noticeable on account of their ivorlc and 
ability" 

BRIGHT MEN ARE IN INCREASING DEMAND. 

" Have all the good places been taken — all the 
chances for young men exhausted?" This question I 
asked of W. E. Corey, general superintendent of the 
Homestead works. 

" By no means," he cheerily replied. " We need good 
men more than ever before. It is not always the smartest 
mau, however, who gets along the best; it is the man 
with bulldog tenacity, the man who perseveres and never 
gives up, ivho succeeds." 

Mr. Corey entered the laboratory of the Edgar Thom- 
son works when a boy of only sixteen years. But he 
left work for a short time to study bookkeeping at Duff's 
College, in Pittsburg. " / studied chemistry at night, at 
home," he said; which showed the boy's earnest desire 
to acquire knowledge, and to equip himself for the seem- 
ingly uncertain future opening before him. 

"Then I entered the order department of the plate 
mill at Homestead, and subsequently rose, by successive 
stages, to my present position, just as any young man 
may, if he pays attention to business and endeavors to 
make his life a success. The point which I wish to em- 
phasize is, that to make headway you must have plenty of 
push and energy, must always endeavor to go ahead, must 
not know what the word "fail " means ; and must not be 
satisfied to merely do the work laid out for you, but do 
more." 



148 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 



ABILITY AND FIDELITY PROMOTED THEM. 

Mr. Corey's greatest triumph was his invention of the 
Carnegie re-forged armor. Services of like nature Mr. 
Carnegie delighted in recognizing and encouraging. 

" And/' said Mr. Corey, " there is just as much chance 
in these works, to-day, for a young man to make himself 
valuable as there ever was ; and just as surely as he does 
he will be rewarded." 

James Scott, general superintendent of the Lucy 
Furnaces, is another type of the practical man. Coming 
to this country from Dalkeith, Scotland, some twenty- 
seven years ago, he served his apprenticeship with his 
father, who was a blacksmith; then worked as a machin- 
ist in New York for about a year, then in Ohio with the 
Port Washington Iron and Steel Company, and, two 
years later, in 1877, went to the Lucy Furnaces, as a 
machinist and engineer, to take charge of the machinery. 
In nine years he rose to be assistant superintendent, and, 
two years later, became general superintendent. 

PUSH AND ENERGY ENCOURAGE THOSE BELOW. 

" You are unfortunate," he said, " if you cannot throw 
your heart into your work ; also if you are not appreci- 
ated. Mr. Carnegie encouraged me by his appreciation, 
which was a great stimulus to further effort. I endeavor 
now to encourage my foremen, and to help them to bet- 
ter their condition ; and, if they show that they are wor- 
thy men and are likely to rise, they are shifted around 
from one position to another to further increase their 
scope and knowledge of the business. All the foremen 
in the Lucy Furnaces have been taken from the ranks, 
and it is a fact that our best men are those who came to 
us as boys, and have been trained by us. The man who is 



THE STEEL WORKS. 149 

generally favored is the pushing, energetic one, lie who 
is likely to set a good example, which those beneath him 
will imitate. 

"To show you the power of example, I may relate that 
H. M. Curry, who, when I came to the Lucy Furnaces, 
was manager, was my inspiration. Those were the days 
when the furnaces were almost in a primitive state, and 
required the greatest nursing to turn out one hundred 
tons of pig iron a day. Often, when I came to work in 
the morning, I passed Mr. Curry going to breakfast, in 
all probability not having been in bed for forty-eight 
hours. That led me to reflect. His skill and enthusi- 
astic energy impressed me forcibly, and have remained 
with me as illustrations of the importance of man's 
duty." 

Emil Swen t son, who was a general superintendent of 
the Keystone Bridge Works when I visited this estab- 
lishment, was born in Sweden, and is the only general 
superintendent who received a technical education. He 
attended public school, and the technical school at 
Gothenburg ; then he spent two years in Munich, and in 
1878 was graduated from what is generally considered 
the highest technical school in the world, at Zurich, 
Switzerland. Coming to America, he secured a place as 
a common laborer in the Hudson Kiver tunnel, and 
worked there awhile, handling bricks and mortar. In 
1882 he went to the South Pennsylvania Railroad as a 
rodman, and rose to be resident engineer of construction. 
Three years later he went to the Phoenix Bridge Com- 
pany as bridge draughtsman, and in that capacity went 
to the Keystone Bridge Company, where in 1889 he was 
appointed engineer in charge of detailing. Four years 
later, after the company had been taken by the Carnegie 
interest, he was made chief engineer ; and two years ago 



150 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

advanced to his present position. He, too, attributes his 
promotions to his endeavor to always do that which he had 
on hand to the best of his ability ; to always surpass, if 
possible, his latest achievement. After having been en- 
gaged in bridge business for a couple of months he saw 
plainly his opportunity. He followed it intently, even 
as 'now, believing that an engineer must keep pace with 
the times. His maxim is : " Never permit yourself to 
become a back number ; rather be a little ahead of the 
times." 

FIVE WISE MATERNAL WORDS. 

" My old Scottish mother," said Captain L. T. Brown, 
who was at the time of my visit the general superintend- 
ent of the Union Lower Mills, "impressed upon my 
memory as a child the motto, ' Be loyal to your employ- 
ers.^ I have never forgotten those five words. I was 
born here in Pittsburg, and received only a public school 
education. When fourteen years old I went to work for 
the Schoenberger Company as an assistant roller. But 
the call to arms stirred me and I enlisted. After the war 
I saw some Indian fighting od the plains. In 1872 I came 
here as manager, and have been promoted to be general 
superintendent. May a lad of to-day do the same as I ? 
Certainly ; times were never brighter for the average mill 
hand. The foreign demand for our superior materials 
creates home competition in quality, and puts a premium 
on the ability and service of our mechanics. I see nothing 
but encouragement ahead for the young man of to-day ; 
but, as usual, he must begin at the bottom of the ladder, 
and depend mostly upon himself to rise to the top." 

Joseph E. Schwab, who is C. M. Schwab's brother, 
I found to be the general superintendent of the Duquesne 
works ; and, like his brother, he is a self-made man of 
great ability and energy. 



THE STEEL WORKS. 151 

" I entered the Edgar Thomson Steel Works when I 
was nineteen years old," he said, " but previously I had 
been educated at St. Francis College, at Loretto, Penn- 
sylvania, and had also received something of a technical 
education. The latter I thoroughly believe in, if it is 
not too exhaustive, and if it is combined with practical 
work. It is far better to have a little technical educa- 
tion, and to gain the rest of your knowledge by work, 
than to receive, practically nothing but a scientific edu- 
cation. My knowledge proved of great assistance to me 
in my position as draughtsman and in 1872 I went to 
the Homestead Steel Works as superintendent of the 
department producing structural material. Four years 
ago I was appointed superintendent of the Upper Union 
Mills, and six months later I became general superin- 
tendent of the Duquesne steel works and blast furnaces. 

" What caused my rise ? Hard work, principally. 
Possibly, also, a willingness to assume other duties, when- 
ever time permitted, was a prominent factor. Sobriety, 
integrity, fidelity, iron habits of industry, enthusiasm, and 
alertness to opportunity, — these are the qualities that 
underlie success" 



XXV. 

THE GOLDEN KULE IN BUSINESS: 
THE GOOD WILL AND FELLOWSHIP OF EMPLOYEES. 



Samuel Jones, when mayor of Toledo, Ohio, won for 
himself a wide reputation, as a municipal, social, and 
industrial reformer, being known throughout the country 
as " Golden Eule Jones." 

He is president of the Acme Oil Company; an inventor 
and manufacturer of a successful patent — the Acme 
sucker-rod, an implement for pumping oil wells. He 
has made a fortune as a successful operator in oil, and 
he has done it without influence or backing, by dint of 
industry, honesty, and push, starting as a poor, penniless 
boy, with only such education as he could acquire by 
himself. 

BORN IN A HUMBLE HOME. 

Mr. Jones was born in 1846, in Wales. Of this humble 
home he says : 

" It could scarcely be dignified by the name of cottage, 
for, as I saw it a few years ago, it seemed a little 
barren hut, though still occupied." It is in memory of 
this modest birthplace, over the sea, which is known as 
Tan y Craig (Under the Rock), that Mr. Jones has named 
his handsome Toledo mansion Tan y Oderwen (Under the 
Oak). 

152 



THE GOLDEN RULE. 153 

Perhaps the following autobiographical statement will 
serve better than anything I could write to present his 
life story : 

" I came with my parents to America when I was 
three years old, and I have often heard them tell of the 
tedious voyage of thirty days in an emigrant sailing ship, 
and the subsequent voyage over the Erie Canal to central 
New York, where they settled in Lewis County. My 
parents were very poor and very pious. The poverty 
in our family was so stringent that it was necessary for 
me to go out and work, and I bear upon my body, to-day, 
the marks of the injustice and wrong of child labor. 

"At the age of eighteen I heard of the opportunities 
in the oil regions in Pennsylvania, and at once made my 
way to Titusville. I landed there with fifteen cents in 
my pocket, and without an acquaintance in the State. 
For three days I went through one of the most trying 
experiences of any young man's life — living without 
money and seeking work among strangers. 

THE LAND OF OPPORTUNITIES. 

P- 

" But I was on the right track ; I was in a land of 
opportunities. I soon found work and a business in 
producing crude petroleum. 

" Since 1870 I have been more or less of an oil pro- 
ducer. In 1866 I came to the Ohio oil fields, producing 
oil at Lima. Since that time I have followed it in Ohio 
and Indiana, and to some extent in Pennyslvania and 
West Virginia. . In 1893 I invented improved appliances 
for producing oil, and, finding manufacturers unwilling 
to make the articles, fearing there would be no profit, I 
undertook their manufacture. 

" This brought me in contact with labor conditions in 
a city for the first time in my life. As a rule, labor in 



154 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

the oil fields had enjoyed large wages compared with 
similar classes outside. 

A FRACTION OF A DOLLAR. 

" I found men working in Toledo for a fraction of a 
dollar a day. I began to wonder how it was possible for 
men to live on such a small sum of money in a way be- 
coming to the citizens of a free republic. I studied 
social conditions, and these led me to feel very keenly 
the degradation of my fellow-men, and I at once declared 
that the l going wages ' rule should not govern in the 
Acme Sucker-Rod Company, which is the firm name of 
our business. I said that the rule that every man is 
entitled to such a share of the product of his toil as will 
enable him to live decently, and in such a way that he 
and his children may be fitted to be citizens of the free 
republic, should be the rule governing the wages of our 
establishment. 

" To break down the feeling of social inequality, we 
began to ' get together ' — that is, we had little excur- 
sions down the bay. We invited our workmen and their 
families, and also some other people who live in big 
houses and do not work with their hands. We sought to 
mix them, to let them understand that we were all people, 
— just people, you know. 

GOOD WILL AND FELLOWSHIP IN BUSINESS. 

" As our business increased we took in new men. 
We made no special effort to select. We asked no ques- 
tions as to their habits, their morals, their religion, or 
their irreligion. We were ignoring the sacred rule of 
business, getting along in a sort of free and easy way, 
occasionally giving the boys a word of caution printed 
on their pay envelopes, or a little letter expressing good 



THE GOLDEN" RULE. 155 

will and fellowship. Then we came to feel the need of 
a rule to govern the place. We thought, to that extent, 
we ought to be like other people. So we had the follow- 
ing printed on a piece of tin, and nailed to the wall. It 's 
there to-day : 

"'The Rule Governing this Factory: Therefore, 
irJtatsoeve)' ye would that men should do unto you do ye 
even so unto them.' 

"In 1895, at Christmas time, we made a little cash 
dividend, accompanying it with such a letter as we 
believed would be helpful. In 1S96 we repeated the 
dividend and the letter. In 1897 and 1898 we did the 
same." 

In response to the query as to how he would regulate 
property interests, Mayor Jones said : 

" If you will read the Fourth of Acts and see how 
property was regarded and treated by the early Chris- 
tians you will read what I believe to be the one scien- 
tific way in which property can be handled for the good 
of all. The manifest destiny of the world is to realize 
brotherhood. We are brothers, not competitors. 

" By far the best thing the Acme Sucker-Rod Company 
has done has been to open the adjoining corner lot as a 
Golden Rule park and playground. Here is a spot of 
God's green earth in the heart of the industrial part of 
our city, that is as free to the people as when the red 
Indian trod there. And I am sure that the healthful 
play of the children, and the delightful studies of the 
older ones as we discuss the questions of brotherhood, 
golden rule, and right relations generally, in our Sunday 
afternoon meetings, will do more to bring about the era 
of peace and good will than all else that has been done 
there. And now we have added Golden Rule Hall, where 
we may continue these studies. 



156 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 



TRYING TO LEARN HOW TO HELP EACH OTHER. 

" How delightful are the hours which we pass to- 
gether in the study of the question of right social rela- 
tions ! How much like men it makes us feel to think 
that we are spending a part of our time in trying to learn 
how we can help each other ; that is, help all the people, 
instead of devoting it all to the piggish business of help- 
ing ourselves. 

" As an outgrowth of that spirit, during the past year, 
we have : our Cooperative Insurance, the Cooperative 
Oil Company, the Tuesday Night Social Study Club, 
and the Equality Club. 

" Our experience during these years has been progres- 
sive, and, I believe, profitable, in a moral as well as a 
material way. I have learned much of my relation to 
my fellow men during that time. I have learned that 
we are all dependent on each other. 

"In introducing the shorter workday and trying to 
establish living wages, we have tried to acknowledge, in 
some measure, the relation of brotherhood that exists 
between us and all other men; for this bond is only 
limited by the confines of the globe itself." 

LOVED BY HIS EMPLOYEES. 

Upon going to his factory one morning, during a hard 
winter, Mr. Jones found that some one in the office had 
affixed a sign to the outside door, " No help wanted." 
This he ordered taken away, as being contrary to the 
spirit of the institution. 

" Men who apply for work should have at least a 
decent reception," he said ; - " maybe we can help them 
by kind words, even if we have no work for them." 

When there was a temporary depression in the oil 



THE GOLDEN RULE. 157 

business Mr. Jones issued an order that his work people 
should not suffer : 

" Keep a little flour in the barrel, and see that they 
have coal enough to keep them warm." 

Returning from a recent trip to Europe, the warmest 
welcome was that given by a crowd of his employees, 
who gathered at the Toledo depot to greet him as the 
train rolled in. 

A WRONG CONCEPTION OF SUCCESS. 

" The trouble with a great many young men," said 
Mr. Jones recently, " is that they have a wrong con- 
ception of success. Large numbers imagine it lies in 
mere money-making. Yet the average millionaire is not 
a happy or even a contented man. He has been so en- 
grossed from his youth in piling up dollars that he has 
had no time for the cultivation of the higher qualities of 
his mind aud heart, in the exercise of which lies the only 
true happiness. Emerson said : ' Happiness lies only in 
the triumph of principle.' 

" If a business man would be truly successful he must 
be careful to keep money his servant, and not let it 
become his master. Many rich men are the slaves of 
their own wealth ; and their sons, growing up without 
a purpose in life, never know what real living is. To 
live we must work, and one must work to live. It is not 
birth, nor money, nor a college education that makes a 
man ; it is work. 

" I can never express too earnestly my thankfulness 
that I learned from my good mother to set up usefulness 
as my standard of success — usefulness to others as well 
as to myself." 



XXVI. 

FEOM MAINE TO MICHIGAN. 



An interview with Hon. Hazen S. Pingree, Governor of 
Michigan, was no easy thing to obtain. " Approachable ? " 
Very. I found him to be a great favorite with news- 
paper men, but the most-sought-after man in Michigan. 
When he arrived at the simply furnished room that 
served as his official headquarters in Detroit, it was to 
find it bordered with a human wainscoting, each anxious 
member of which was waiting patiently, or otherwise, to 
ask some favor of the chief executive. As he entered, 
the room suddenly became absolutely quiet; for there 
was something about the governor's powerful personality 
that commanded attention. But soon each want, no 
matter how small, was attended to in his kindly but 
straightforward way. 

An interesting medley of petitioners was present on 
the day of this interview. The first was a widowed 
mother, requesting a favor for her son, — a wreck of the 
Spanish-American war. 

" I ? 11 do the best I can for you," said the governor, 
heartily, as she left the room, — -and every one knew 
what that meant. 

Next came a gayly-dressed young woman, with a bill, 
which she asked the governor to please push through the 
Legislature. She was patiently referred to the represent- 

158 




HAZEN S. PINGREE. 



HAZES S. F1NGREE. 159 

ative from her district. Then a soldier stood before 
him with a transportation snarl to untangle; a book 
agent; a broadcloth-coated dandy and a street laborer, 
each seeking help ; and then a gaunt, ill-clad old woman, 
who, in broken English, with harrowing tears and ges- 
tures of despair, laid her humble burdens in supplication 
before him. It was a touching oicture. 

Hers was not a case to lay before the governor of the 
State, but she will never know it, poor woman; for the 
generous hand of the great-hearted man slid quickly 
down to the nest of the golden eagle that sent her grate- 
fully away. 

" You are not a native of the State you govern," said 
I, as the governor leisurely seated himself for the inter- 
view. 

"No; I was born in Denmark, Me. My father owned 
a forty-acre farm, and I was brought up there until 
I was about seventeen years old." 

" And you did — " 

u Just what any one would do on a small farm ; worked 
in summer and went to school in the winter. Then I 
started out to make my own way in the world, and the 
first work I found was in a cotton mill at Saco, Me. 
In 1860 I went to Hopkinton, Mass., and learned the 
trade of a cutter in a shoe factory. Soon after that the 
war broke out." 

" And you enlisted ? " 

" Yes, I have two honorable discharges as a private. 
I value them more than my position as governor." 

" How long were you in the war ? " 

"From 1862 until its close. I first enlisted in 
Company F, First Massachusetts Heavy Artillery, and, 
with that regiment, took part in the battles of Bull 
Run, Fredericksburg Road, Harris Farm, Cold Har- 



160 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

bor, Spottsylvania Court-House, North Anne, and South 
Anne." 

"Then you know something of the horrors of war, 
from your own experience ? " 

" Yes ; that is the reason I am an advocate of the uni- 
versal peace project." 

" You believe in that ? " 

" Decidedly ; and moreover, I believe that ten years 
from now every man who calls himself a Christian will 
be ready to plead for peace." 

" Let us return to your experience in the war. Were 
you ever a prisoner ? " 

" Several others and myself were captured on May 25, 
1864, by a squad of Mosby's men. We were confined 
five months at Andersonville ; and from there were 
taken to Salisbury prison in North Carolina, then to 
Millen, Ga., where we were exchanged in November, 
1864. 1 rejoined my regiment in front of Petersburg 
and was in the expedition to Weldon Kailroad, the bat- 
tles of Boynton Road, Petersburg, Sailors' Creek, Farns- 
ville, and Appomattox." 

" And after the war ? " 

"I came to Detroit and obtained employment in a 
shoe factory. Soon after that my partner and myself 
started one of our own. He had a little less than a 
thousand dollars, and I had four hundred and sixty 
dollars — left from my army pay." 
. " That seemed a large sum, I suppose ? " 

"Yes, and I thought if I could ever get to making 
fifty pairs of shoes a day I should be perfectly happy." 

The number is amusingly small, when it is remembered 
that this factory, the embryo of which he spoke, had 
grown up under the governor's personal supervision, 
until it became one of the largest in the United States. 



IIAZEN S. PING REE. 161 

"But tell me, governor, when you were starting out 
in life, did you ever look forward to the career you have 
carved out for yourself ? " 

" No," said he, with the promptness that characterized 
all of his speech, " I never had anything mapped out in 
my life. I did whatever there happened to be for me to 
do, and let the result take care of itself." 

" Is it the same with your political success, or is that 
the outgrowth of youthful ambition? " 

HOW HE BECAME MAYOR OF DETROIT. 

"No, I was pushed into that by accident. I had 
never been in the common council chamber before I 
was elected mayor of Detroit. The thing that caught 
me was that my friends began to say that I was afraid 
of the position ; so of course I had to accept the nomi- 
nation to prove that I was n't." 

This was clever of his friends. The fact is that at 
that time the city needed the governor's brains to man- 
age its affairs. He was elected mayor of Detroit four 
consecutive terms, and was in his eighth year as mayor 
when he resigned. Even his most earnest political op- 
ponents admit that he was the best mayor the city ever 
had. 

" But during the formative years of your career, did 
you ever worry over the possibility of failure ? " 

" No," said the governor serenely, " I never did, and 
don't now. I was never given to worrying." 

In this, as other ways, the governor was remarkable. 
During the stormiest of political times he was never in 
the least disturbed when he reached home, to sleep as 
peacefully as a child. 

" What would you suggest, governor, as the best route 
by which the young man of to-day may obtain success ? " 



162 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

" He can do one of two things : go to work for some- 
body else, or, if he cannot stand that, he can buy a 
small farm." 

"Then you think there is not the chance in the United 
States now that there was thirty years ago ? " 

" There is n't a doubt about it. The young men of to- 
day are to be pitied — there is n't anything for them to 
do. The subject is a serious one," said the governor, 
speaking rapidly. " Why, if I had nothing, I would n't 
know how to advise my own son to start. You know I 
don't claim to know much, but I do understand a little 
about the shoe business, and I can tell you honestly that 
with the knowledge I have gained in many years of ex- 
perience, and with the influence of my friends, I could 
not start in the shoe business to-day with the chance of 
success that I had then." 

" And the causes of this ? " 

" Are trusts and monopolies." 

" And the result ? " 

A GREAT CHANGE PROPHESIED. 

"There will be a great change in this country before 
many years. Free schools have so educated the people 
that they will not submit to this injustice forever, even 
though it is powerfully organized against them." 

" But how will this change be effected ? " 

"Through the splitting up of political parties — but 
it is sure to come." 

"Recognizing the conditions that the young man of 
to-day has to contend with, what guide-posts would you 
point out to him ? " 

" In the first place I would advise every young man to 
be honest and outspoken at all times. What people 
want is open, frank talk. There is too much catering 



HAZEN S. PINGREE. 163 

and palavering and round-about talking nowadays. It 
is a great mistake. Then, of course, in order to accom- 
plish anything, the young man must have plenty of en- 
ergy and perseverance." 

By inheritance Governor Pingree was a patriot and 
tighter. In his possession were three historic muskets, 
one of which was used by his great-grandfather in the 
Revolutionary war ; another by his grandfather in the 
War of 1812, and one by himself in the Civil war. His 
first American forefather was Moses Pingree, who emi- 
grated to this country in 1640. Many of his descendants 
have figured with distinction in American history, among 
them being Samuel Everett Pingree, governor of Ver- 
mont from 1884 to 1886. 

Governor Pingree was a strikingly interesting example 
of self-earned success. His indomitable will, tireless 
energy, and unyielding perseverance were the machinery 
with which he manufactured the fabric of his career. 
But the pattern was stamped by his own individuality, 
and was like no other ever seen, — it was sui generis. 

On the battlefield of public life Governor Pingree was a 
general who said, " Come on ! " not " Go on ! " He acted 
with the bold, unfettered authority that springs from an 
honest belief in the justice of his opinions, and never 
put his plans out of focus by shifting his ground. 
When once resolved he was as immovable as a fixed star. 
He was absolutely fearless, because he was absolutely 
honest, and was not afraid to fight, single-handed, the 
greatest financial power the world has ever known. He 
was a champion of the people and a believer in them. 

HE WAS NOT A DEMAGOGUE. 

" But they call you a demagogue. How does that 
accusation affect you ? " 



164 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

The governor smiled, as if he considered it a joke. 

"Well, that amuses me," said he. "They don't do 
that around here any more. They 've worn it out, I 
guess. No, it does n't disturb me a particle. I always 
go on the principle that lies never hurt anybody." 

Governor Pingree was a man of powerful physique and 
dignity of bearing. But he was delightfully oblivious to 
his own importance, and was entirely devoid of ostenta- 
tion in everything that he did or said. His disposition 
was buoyant, his manner that of frank simplicity, and he 
was prodigal in his generosity and sympathy for those in 
need. In his private business the welfare of his em- 
ployees was always balanced in the scale with his own. 

In the camps of the Spanish war he was known as 
"Father Pingree," and when the boys returned to De- 
troit he was the first to greet them. But no one ever 
saw him in an open carriage behind the band ; he was 
always away off in a corner of the station, where the 
ambulances were waiting, giving a word of encourage- 
ment to this poor fellow, and patting that one on the 
back. He worked for forty hours at a time, without a 
thought of sleep, to keep up a cheerful welcome, though 
many a time he was seen to turn away to brush the tears 
from his eyes. 

The home life of Governor Pingree was as beautiful as 
his life in public was successful. His residence, a three- 
story gray stone house, was a model of quiet elegance and 
refinement, and there his greatest happiness was found. 

When the governor died in London, Michigan arose 
as one man to honor his memory, and the workingmen 
mourned as having lost a friend. 



xxvn. 

THE GENEROUS TREATMENT OF WORKMEN 
— IT PAYS: 

A PRACTICAL DEMONSTRATION. 



" Hard work and thoughtful consideration of the sug- 
gestions of others," was the answer of one of the most 
successful manufacturers of the country, to a request for 
the secret of his success and the success of his factory, 
often called " the model factory of the world." The 
speaker was John H. Patterson, the young, energetic, and 
enthusiastic president of the National Cash Register 
Company, of Dayton, Ohio. " My brother and I never 
knew anything but steady, honest work in the old days 
when the place where this factory stands was only a 
cornfield. Hence, when it came to the pull for a place in 
the business world we were prepared by our training." 

Mr. Patterson was educated at Miami University and 
Dartmouth. With no special experience in business, he 
became clerk in a canal office. On one occasion he 
made a suggestion to his employer regarding the improve- 
ment of certain methods, and was plainly told to mind 
his own business. The sting of the reproof led the 
young clerk to determine that, if he ever became an 
employer he would encourage suggestions from his em- 
ployees in every way possible. 

165 



166 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

Mr. Patterson, by frugality and industry, gradually 
saved money and pushed ahead until he became manager 
of a coal mine. He noticed that the income from the 
stores with which the miners had their dealings was not 
proportionate to the business. He heard of the cash 
register, then recently invented, and promptly telegraphed 
for two of them. With his brother, who was with him 
in the coal-mine enterprise, he became interested in the 
cash register, and bought the patent. 

DIFFICULTIES MET AND MASTERED. 

Then the Pattersons commenced to manufacture the 
cash register. They were not, at first, successful. One 
of the stockholders sold to Mr. Patterson and his brother 
a considerable amount of the stock, and the next day 
refused $ 2,000 offered by the buyers to cancel the sale. 
When the early difficulties had been overcome the busi- 
ness grew so rapidly that, by 1888, a large building was 
necessary. It was determined to build a new factory in 
one of the southern suburbs of Dayton. The building 
was like thousands of others devoted to mechanical pur- 
poses, and the system was that usual in factories intended 
wholly to obtain the greatest product with -the least ex- 
penditure of money, and with little thought for the 
comfort of the employees. The greatest difficulties 
which the Pattersons had to contend with, at this time, 
were a lack of sympathy among their wage-earners, and 
the inability to get thoroughly skilled workmen. In 
1894, after ten years of effort, with a market fairly open 
before them, and success ahead if the machine could be 
made to work perfectly, they were confronted by the 
complete failure of a new invention, and the return from 
England of a carload of broken machines, instead of the 
draft for $30,000 which had been expected. 



JOHN II. PATTERSON. 1(57 

Nothing daunted, and determined to learn the causes 
of the difficulties in the works, the president and secre- 
tary moved their desks into the factory. Observation 
convinced them that the best way to obtain success was 
to revolutionize the usual business methods, and to adopt 
a system which was, in many respects, entirely different 
from that in other places. 

Kecalling his own experience as a clerk, the president 
resolved that the officers and working force should be 
on the best of terms ; that the assistance of every em- 
ployee, from the lowest to the highest, should be de- 
served, if not won, by kindness ; that more money could 
be made by giving careful thought to the condition of 
the workers, enabling them to labor under the most 
favorable circumstances, and thus increasing their out- 
put while decreasing the cost ; and that a proper division 
of responsibility, as well as of labor, would release the 
heads of the company so that they could give time and 
thought to expansion and questions of business policy. 

Thus was begun in 1894 a new departure in modern 
manufacturing methods, and the organization of a sys- 
tem which has made the name of Patterson, and the fame 
of the company and of its factory, known everywhere. 
The individuality of the concern, as much as the excel- 
lence of its product, has given the National Cash Register 
Company its world-wide reputation. Having determined 
upon a revolution in their system, the president and his 
associates brought to bear all their former training and 
experience, and all that could be learned from the expe- 
rience of others. President Patterson would have been 
a successful schoolmaster, had he chosen teaching for his 
profession, or a great general, had he preferred to be a 
soldier, for his factory plans show an intuitive apprecia- 
tion of the best in education, and of the strategic value 



168 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

of a thorough organization. But it is in suggesting new 
ideas in business, in looking far ahead for the best meth- 
ods of presenting his work and winning men, and in 
surrounding himself with strong men for special work, 
that Mr. Patterson, with his brother's cooperation, has 
shown his power. 

A LIBERAL POLICY BRINGS A GOLDEN REWARD. 

The change determined upon resulted first, in the sub- 
stitution of the committee system for the superintendent 
and manager, the members of the committees being, 
chosen from the best in the ranks ; secondly, in encour- 
aging assistance from all classes, by offering prizes for 
the best suggestions regarding every feature of every 
department of the business ; thirdly, in systematizing 
plans for training and educating the employees, in order 
that the highest intelligence jmight be developed among 
the workmen and applied to the manufacture of the prod- 
uct ; fourthly, in providing for the physical comfort and 
mental and moral training of all employees at work and 
in their homes. 

To make clear these objects, as well as to win the 
intelligent cooperation of all the workmen, frequent 
meetings of all departments were planned where there 
could be an exchange of opinion and presentation of 
complaints, with both sides heard. Then came conven- 
tions of officers, workmen, and salesmen, resulting in the 
admirable gatherings, now an annual feature, which 
bring together for an entire week hundreds of agents 
and the large office and factory force. A semi-monthly 
magazine was established, and afterwards other peri- 
odicals. 

" The more we talked face to face, and the more we 
published through the printed page, the better we un- 



JOHN II. PATTERSON. 169 

understood each other, the less trouble we had, and the 
more good suggestions we got for our business," ex- 
plained Mr. Patterson. 

PRIZES FOR SUGGESTIONS. 

Thus deliberately, year by year, these ideas have been 
developed and applied to improved conditions ; and it is 
here as much as in the direct business plans that these 
brothers show their remarkable foresight as well as 
genuine love for their fellowmen. Each year $1,200 in 
prizes are offered for suggestions, the offers being open 
to all employees except heads of departments and their 
assistants. Every one, from messenger boy upward, is 
eager to join in the competition and help to build up the 
business. Autographic registers in every department 
afford immediate means for making the suggestions. 
Of the four thousand suggestions made last year more 
than one thousand Avere adopted for use. The semi- 
annual presentation of prizes is a great occasion, and 
brings together several thousand people in a delightful 
" family gathering." 

Lectures and entertainments are frequently prepared 
and given. Over six thousand beautifully colored lan- 
tern slides of the finest kind have been made upon all 
topics, including travel, health, business organization, 
education, history, science, and art, for use in this in- 
struction. Xo more intelligent company of men and 
women can be found in any establishment than these 
fifteen hundred workmen. 

" Comfort in shop and at home is essential to exact 
work and high skill," is the guiding principle throughout 
this factory. Hence the buildings are models of neat- 
ness and cleanliness, the workroom having as much at- 
tention as the office. Free baths are provided in every 



170 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

building, and each employee is entitled to twenty min- 
utes of the company's time each week. Special systems 
of ventilation, large windows, and cheerful rooms deco- 
rated with palms during the winter, make work a pleas- 
ure. 

The company employs over two hundred women, and 
one of the most noticeable things in the entire organiza- 
tion is the chivalry shown to them by their fellow-work- 
ers. In all the rooms are supplied chairs with backs 
and foot-rests, instead of the usual form of stools. White 
aprons with sleeves are provided, and kept in order at 
the company's expense. Toilet rooms with every pro- 
vision for convenience and comfort are arranged on each 
floor. Noting one day the discomfort attending cold 
lunches, the president immediately ordered arrangements 
made for providing warm lunches for the women. This 
resulted in the fitting up of a refreshment room on 
the fourth floor, to which the elevator carries the 
employees, and there, in a most attractive apartment, a 
warm lunch is served each day, at the company's ex- 
pense, to every woman employee. The result of this 
was seen at once in the increased output of the depart- 
ments, so that the company realized immediately a profit 
of at least twenty-five per cent, on the cost of the 
lunches. 

ENCOURAGING HOME LIFE. 

To encourage home life and comforts the hours of 
work were reduced for men from ten to nine and one- 
half hours, and for women from ten to eight hours, while 
the rate of wages remains as on a basis of ten hours. In 
addition to this the young women have ten minutes' 
recess, morning and afternoon, and they come an hour 
after the men in the morning, and leave ten minutes be- 



JOHN IT. PATTERSON. 171 

fore them in the evening. Saturday half-holidays for all 
employees have been the rule during the past year. A 
kindergarten for the little children, and a cooking school 
for the older girls and young women have been provided 
at the company's expense. No effort is spared to culti- 
vate a high standard of social life among all connected 
with the company. On these occasions all distinction of 
position is forgotten, and there is a kindly mingling of 
the men and women and their families. 

These evidences of interest on the part of the company 
have been responded to by the employees, not only in 
increased loyalty and enthusiasm, but also in the develop- 
ment of independent thought and action. The young 
women are organized in an excellent women's club, the 
"Century," which is a member of the State and National 
federations, and which each year carries out a pro- 
gramme that would do credit to any club in the country. 
The men have a " Progress Club," for the discussion of 
the many topics of the day. A large club has been 
organized for night study in drawing, mathematics, and 
other subjects of value in the factory. A choral society, 
a relief association, which includes in its membership a 
large majority of the employees, and which provides for 
help in time of sickness, a bicycle club, and other soci- 
eties, give evidence of the interest of the people them- 
selves. 

Nor have President Patterson and his associates been 
satisfied with limiting their efforts to their employees. 
They believe that the factory should be a helpful in- 
fluence in its neighborhood, and even in the entire city. 
Hence the advantages offered to employees are extended 
to the suburb in which the factory is situated. Their 
first effort in this direction was the beautifying of the 
company's grounds, which are to-day among the most 



172 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

delightful garden spots in the world. This was followed 
by the offering of prizes for the prettiest home grounds, 
front yards, back yards, vine planting, and window- 
boxes, in South Park. Through the Improvement As- 
sociation the appearance of this portion of the city has 
been changed. 

ELEVATING SOCIAL INFLUENCES. 

Through the " K C. R. House," a pretty cottage pre- 
sided over by a devoted deaconess, the moral, social, and 
intellectual life of the entire suburb is influenced. Con- 
trary to the common rule, the houses facing the factory 
bring the highest rents, and the street adjoining it is 
said to be the most beautiful street in the world, consid- 
ering the size of the lots and the cost of the houses, 
averaging eighteen hundred dollars each. For the chil- 
dren of the neighborhood are provided boys' clubs, girls' 
clubs, sewing and millinery schools, and the boys' prize 
vegetable gardens. These last, growing out of the early 
experience of the owners in the value of work, have been 
remarkably successful. A Sunday-school, held in the 
large hall of the factory, has an attendance of over five 
hundred, and supplying a delightful Sunday afternoon 
for the neighborhood. A mother's guild, a kindergarten 
association, a branch library, with several hundred well- 
selected volumes, and all the leading magazines, open to 
all employees and the neighborhood alike, attest the 
mutual sympathy of the company and those living near. 

Summing up the work and its guiding principles, 
President Patterson said : 

" Labor does not want to be under obligations ; hence, 
when well treated, it will return the treatment. The 
quickest way to reach working people is found to be 
through the kindergarten, lunches for the daughters, 



JOHN II. PATTERSON. 173 

shorter hours, and everything that shows consideration, 
even though it does not cost much. Everything is done 
that we can afford to do. Perhaps one-fourth of our 
people misconstrued our intentions, and did not appre- 
ciate what was done, hence we separated. Now nearly 
all are loyally seconding every effort. 

A VERITABLE GARDEN. 

" We have made it almost impossible for a man to live 
in this community and neglect his premises. At first I 
met with a strange and unaccountable opposition in my 
efforts to get the people in the neighborhood of the fac- 
tory to beautify their yards, or even to keep them clear 
of rubbish heaps. Morning-glory seeds are cheap. I 
bought several hundred packages of these, and induced a 
few to plant them. I had pictures taken of all the un- 
sightly yards and spots about the neighborhood. These 
were converted into lantern slides, and exhibited with 
appropriate comments wherever the people congregated. 
This created a storm of indignation, but in doing this I 
was exercising the privilege of any citizen. It had its 
good results. 

" Little by little, the offensive places were cleaned up, 
and a smoky, disreputable region has become a veritable 
garden. There are no people about here now who would 
tear down the vines and litter up their yards. They 
take a pride in the appearance of the community." 



XXVIII. 

A RICH MAN WHO IS PRAISED BY THE 
POOR. 



Late one afternoon I stopped to converse with a po- 
liceman in Central Park. Another policeman came up. 
Nathan Straus was mentioned. 

" Well, I tell you," said the first policeman, stamping 
his foot, " there is a man ! " 

" Charities ! He 's the only man in New York City 
who gives real charities. Why, when others want to give, 
they go to him, and have him do it for them. He knows 
what 's what. I tell you, he 's the most respected man in 
New York City." 

"That's right." 

Go on the East Side, and ask about Nathan Straus, 
and you will hear what is as pleasant as it is rare, — the 
poor giving the rich man unstinted praise. But do not 
speak to Mr. Straus about his work as charity ; he dis- 
likes to have it called by that name. 

PRACTICAL, MERCIFUL BENEFICENCE. 

The greatest blessing that he has conferred on New 
York is helping the poor to get pure, sterilized milk. 
No work of beneficence ever before showed such surpris- 
ing results. It has reduced the death rate of infants 
over fifty per cent. Formerly almost seventy-five per 
cent, of the children of the very poor died. 

174 



NATHAN STRAUS. 175 

It was in the summer of 1893 that Mr. Straus opened 
his first milk depot, at which milk was sold for four 
cents a quart ; one and one-half cents a bottle for steril- 
ized pure milk ; one cent a bottle (six ounces) for mod- 
ified milk ; and one cent a glass for pure milk. 

It was a loss to the benefactor, but he established other 
depots throughout the unhealthy portions of the city and 
in the parks. Doctors received blanks to fill out for milk 
for those unable to purchase, and to such it was given 
free. A doctor's prescription was honored. What fol- 
lowed ? The death rate was reduced. 

At the instigation of his son — who died from a cold 
contracted in distributing coal — coal yards had been 
established on the docks and elsewhere. The dealers at 
that time were retailing coal at ten cents and fourteen 
cents a basket, which made the price from twelve dol- 
lars to sixteen dollars per ton. At Mr. Straus's depots 
five-cent tickets procured twenty and twenty-five pounds ; 
ten-cent tickets, forty and fifty pounds, and so on. Most 
of the coal was carried in baskets on the shoulders and 
backs of those who, in some cases, had walked miles to 
obtain it. During the last financial panic grocery stores 
were started, where five cents procured a large amount 
of food. Lodging houses were opened, where a clean bed 
and a breakfast of coffee and bread could be procured for 
five cents, and lunch rooms where two cents purchased 
bread and coffee and corned beef. 

The great financier, J. Pierpont Morgan, asked Mr. 
Straus to be permitted to assist him in the grocery stores, 
and a large central depot was rented at 345 Grand street, 
for which Mr. Morgan furnished the money and Mr. 
Straus acted as manager. 

Although all these charities in which Mr. Straus has 
been interested have entailed a steady loss, a great num- 



176 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

ber of those lie benefited and benefits are under the im- 
pression that he does not sustain a loss, and that they 
merely buy for less than they would pay elsewhere. 

HE DOES NOT WOUND THEIR SELF-RESPECT. 

This is exactly the impression he desires them to pos- 
sess — in his own words : 

" I do not wish to make a single one feel that he is 
receiving charity, or is in any way a pauper. Such an 
impression is harmful, and lowers the standard of those 
who have a right to consider that they are the sinews of 
the country. I wish them to feel only that they are buy- 
ing at low prices. Suppose that those who buy five cents' 
worth of groceries and trudge a distance for them are 
able to pay a little more. The mere fact that they walk 
far to save a few cents proves that their hard earned 
pennies are precious, and that there is the necessity of 
getting all that can be obtained for their money." 

HE IS A KEEN, ENERGETIC MANAGER. 

Such is the keynote of Mr. Straus's love for humanity. 
He is not a " lord bountiful," but a generous man, unso- 
licitous of thanks. There are many records of him having 
helped individuals. Two young men in his employ were 
threatened with an early death from consumption. He 
sent them to a sanitarium in the Adirondacks for a year, 
when they returned sound in health. During their ab- 
sence, their salaries were paid to their families. 

In business Mr. Straus is a strict disciplinarian. He 
believes that every man should attend strictly to duty, 
and this is the fundamental secret of his success. In his 
own words, " Any man with the ordinary amount of bus- 
iness instinct can succeed. To succeed, you must be 
honest, believe in your own ability, and after having se- 



NATHAN STRAUS. 177 

lected your path in life, stick to it through thick and thin. 
With ordinary mental endowments, there is no reason 
why any young man should fail. 

" Do I think the chances of to-day are as great as some 
years ago ? They are greater. The thing is to take ad- 
vantage of opportunities and utilize them to the best of 
your ability. Chances or opportunities come to every one 
often in a lifetime. They should be recognized. Never 
let one slip ; but weigh the possibilities. The great 
trouble is, a great many young men do not bestir them- 
selves. They fall into a rut, and lack 'ginger.' This is 
a bustling world, and every young man should be wide- 
awake and on the lookout, constantly giving conscien- 
tious attention to duty. Duty, integrity, and energy are 
the watchwords, and will direct you on the road to suc- 
cess. Remember that the opportunities of to-day are as 
great as ever." 



THE BACKGROUND OF HIS LIFE. 

But though Mr. Straus is a tireless worker he finds 
time for a little recreation. He is one of the best gentle- 
man drivers in the city, and he delights to race on the 
speedway. Still the background of his life is charity. 
For many years he desired to establish a sterilizing plant 
on Randall's Island, for the benefit of waifs and found- 
lings taken there. The death rate was very high. At 
length he gained his point, and a recent unsolicited letter 
from the matron contained the gratifying statement 
" that the death rate since the installation of the plant 
has been reduced fully fifty per cent." 

In such deeds Nathan Straus delights. His life is one 
of perpetual attention to duty and to business, and he 
encourages others who would succeed, by saying : " Go 



178 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

at it with a will, and stick to your ambitious aspirations 
through thick and thin ! " 

Mr. Straus himself is an excellent example of the suc- 
cess of the principle which he urges upon others as a rule 
of life. His whole career has been distinguished by tire- 
less energy and industry, and the interests which are 
under his control have never suffered for any lack of 
careful and thorough attention. He has always been 
deliberate and consistent in adopting and adhering to 
any policy, public or private, and never deserts those 
whom he has seen fit to honor with his confidence, save 
on absolute proof of their unworthiness. 



XXIX. 

THE DISCOVERER OF TWO HUNDRED 
INVENTIONS : 

SUCCESS FOUND IN HARD WORK. 



Nikola Tesla, the electrician, was born in 1858, at 
Smiljan, Lika, on the borderland of Austro-Hungary. 
His mother had great ingenuity, and delighted in the con- 
struction of looms and churns. His father was a clergy- 
man in the Greek Church, and intended that his son 
should succeed him in the sacred office. There were 
many children in the family, of whom Nikola was one of 
the youngest, and the most remarkable. He always domi- 
nated his brothers and sisters in their games, and at 
school he had a decided aptitude for study. At school 
one day the master was experimenting in mechanics be- 
fore the class. The children were gathered round the 
desk, Nikola in the front row. The teacher proceeded to 
demonstrate what he considered one of the main prin- 
ciples of electricity. He explained just why the lever 
moved, and had almost finished, when Nikola, who had 
been listening intently, interrupted him. "That can't 
be true," he said quietly. The master looked at him in 
astonishment, and demanded an explanation of his words. 
"Well, I say that isn't true," said Nikola again; "I 
can't tell you why to-day, but I will to-morrow." 

179 



180 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

The master dismissed the class, and warned Nikola 
that if he did not prove his assertion before the week was 
out, he would have to answer for his impudence. The 
young student went home, and confidently began his ex- 
periments to prove that the master was wrong. All 
night long he worked, becoming more hopeful every 
moment. Before daylight he had finished his model, 
and went to bed triumphant. He declares that when he 
went up to the desk and showed his machine to the 
teacher he felt more triumphant than he has ever felt 
since; and when he was openly commended before the 
school his joy was supreme. It was not long before the 
whole town knew that Nikola Tesla was destined for a 
great electrician, and his career had begun. 

THE RACE OF GENIUS. 

Young Tesla's early studies were in electricity and 
magnetism. Later he went to Prague and Buda-Pesth 
to study languages. He then entered the laboratory of 
a great inventor at Vienna; but becoming dissatisfied, 
went to Paris, and engaged in the labor of furnishing 
that city with electric lights. Then he went to other 
cities ; ever rising in his profession, making new improve- 
ments, new discoveries, and adding continually to his 
fame. His name became known all over the continent 
and in London. The king of Servia, proud of such a sub- 
ject, decorated him ; and the emperor of Austria did like- 
wise. His rise was almost phenomenal, and many places 
in Europe were open to him. 

Tesla was a lover of liberty. He looked with longing 
eyes toward America, where there is such a promising 
field for electricians. He had read of Edison, and deter- 
mined to come to New York and seek a place with the 
great inventor. Edison gladly received him ; and for 



NIKOLA TESLA. 181 

many years the two worked together, each relying to a 
certain extent on the other, and each profiting by the 
other's knowledge. Gradually their ideas began to differ, 
and it was decided that they had better separate. 

SUPERIOR TO DISCOURAGEMENT. 

On the morning of March 13, 1895, Mr. Tesla met with 
a bitter experience in the entire destruction of his fine 
laboratory on South Fifth avenue by fire. It was a hard 
blow to the inventor, who cried like a child. The work 
of years had gone up in smoke ; and two tottering walls, 
like tumbling monuments, marked the place where he 
had spent years of toil and tribulation in trying to wrest 
the secrets from Nature. But before the ashes were 
fairly cold he was planning for new quarters on East 
Houston street. While the valuable papers, notes, and 
data for years were destroyed, the man was still alive. 

" More divine, the master of all these." 

The new laboratory soon grew, and it is now one of 
the best equipped in the country. Mr. Tesla is in his 
laboratory at half-past eight every morning, and spends 
a long day there, planning, experimenting, and making 
models. He puts an enormous amount of energy into his 
work, and never stops until he has hit upon the idea he 
is after. He has a corps of clever assistants, but is care- 
ful to do all the important work himself. 

"the secret of success is hard work." 
This was Tesla's answer to my question, when I called 

upon him to inquire the secret of his advancement in 

scientific discovery. 

" To be successful in this world," continued the great 

electrician, "one must perform the hardest kind of work. 



182 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

You must keep at it night and day, and not stop a min- 
ute. There is no royal road. This has been the plan I 
have followed for years. I work from sixteen to twenty 
hours out of the twenty-four." 

The life of Tesla is passed in continuous labor in his 
laboratory, where, after working all day, from eight in 
the morning till eight at night, he has often had his din- 
ner brought in, and where he has continued to work till 
eleven or twelve. Twice in two years he has been to the 
theatre. On very rare occasions he has heeded some 
social call. 

Mr. Tesla's hours are crammed with experiments and 
scientific investigations. He has already patented some 
two hundred inventions, has a similar number in various 
stages of evolution in his laboratory, and is dreaming 
daily of new worlds to conquer. 

DUPLICATING THE FIREFLY'S LIGHT. 

"It may interest you," he said to me, "to know that 
my system of vacuum-tube lighting is a success. It is 
now almost ready to be given to the public, and I expect 
soon to make an announcement on the subject. I have 
been watching very carefully what other inventors have 
been doing in this direction, and can assure you that my 
light will meet all requirements." 

The aim and ambition of electricians is to actually 
manufacture artificial daylight. At first thought, it 
seems a very easy matter to duplicate the light of the 
firefly. Nevertheless, for ages, the insect has success- 
fully kept the secrets of its phosphorescent prison-house, 
baffled the brains of the world, and proved as elusive to 
electricians as the will-o'-the-wisp. Of late, several elec- 
tricians have been making remarkable headway -^- not- 
ably Tesla, Edison, Moore, and Haines. All have been 



NIKOLA TESLA. 183 

devoting their time to vacuum-tubes. Mr. Tesla showed 
his friends, some time since, what he could accomplish 
with a single tube, producing a good photograph made 
at a distance of four feet with only two minutes' expos- 
ure. That he has at last succeeded in producing arti- 
ficial sunlight, which will stream from long glass tubes, 
is not surprising, in view of his long years of patient 
experiment and hard work. The points in favor of the 
Tesla light are beautiful illumination, the absence of 
deadly wires, and the non-employment of any kind of 
filament in the tubes. 

He has made a machine for measuring the electric dis- 
charges from the earth; thus suggesting the possibility 
of "calling up" and communicating with the planet 
Mars some day by means of signals. And he has tried 
to harness the electrical discharge of the earth for hu- 
man service. Before he took up the subject the alternat- 
ing current had no recognized place. Now it is used 
everywhere, and has cheapened light and power. This 
he has made use of in transmitting the energy of Niagara 
Falls to the surrounding cities and towns. 

He believes that his discovery of the rotating magnetic 
field is the invention by which he will be best known. 
The " Tesla Oscillator " is a blending of the dynamo and 
the steam engine ; the idea being to get the electric cur- 
rent directly from steam. 

PERSONAL APPEARANCE. 

In personal appearance he is tall and commanding. 
Like Cassius, he has a " lean and hungry look " and 
" thinks too much." 

Mr. Tesla is a great genius, survey him as you will. 
To every one he is courteous.. He always inspires you 
by his noble character. He fully believes that a firm 



184 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

faith is the best divinity, a good life the best philosophy, 
a clear conscience the best law, honesty the best policy, 
and temperance the best physic. His achievements in 
electrical science have already marked him as one of the 
greatest benefactors to civilized society which onr age 
has produced. 



XXX. 

A CAPTAIN OF INVENTION: 
AND THE GIRL WHO KNEW TOO MUCH. 



" I was a mere cipher in that vast sea of human enter- 
prise/' said Henry Bessemer, speaking of his arrival in 
London in 1831. Although but eighteen years old, and 
without an acquaintance in the city, he soon made work 
for himself by inventing a process of copying bas-reliefs 
on cardboard, by which one could learn in ten minutes 
how to make a die from an embossed stamp, for a penny. 
Ascertaining that in this way the raised stamps on offi- 
cial papers could be forged, he invented a perforated stamp 
which could not be forged or removed. At the stamp 
office the chief told him that the government was losing 
£100,000 a year through the custom of removing stamps 
from old parchments and using them again. The chief 
also appreciated the new danger of easy counterfeiting. 
So he offered Bessemer a definite sum for his process of 
perforation, or an office for life at £800 a year. Besse- 
mer chose the office, and hastened to tell the good news 
to a young woman with whom he had agreed to share 
his fortune. In explaining his invention, he told how 
it would prevent any one from taking a valuable stamp 
from a document a hundred years old and using it a 
second time. 

185 



186 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 



" Yes" said his betrothed, " I understand that ; but if 
all stamps had a date put upon them, they could not after- 
wards be used without detection." 

A lightning-flash of woman's wit had done more than 
his months of study. And the same little word would 
render Henry's perforation device of far less value than 
a last year's bird's nest. Henry felt proud of the young 
woman's ingenuity, and suggested the improvement at the 
stamp office. Perforation was abandoned ; but, alas ! as 
a consequence, he was deprived of his promised office ; 
the government coolly making use, from that day to this, 
without compensation, of the idea conveyed by that little, 
insignificant word " date." 

So it would seem that Bessemer's betrothed knew too 
much. And it came about that the government pre- 
vented the stealing of official stamps by stealing from 
Bessemer. 

A DISTINGUISHED FATHER. 

Bessemer's father, Antony Bessemer, was extraordi- 
narily gifted. Born in London, his boyhood was spent 
in Holland. At twenty years of age he erected pump- 
ing-engines at Haarlem to drain the turf-pits. Before 
he was twenty-five this genius was elected one of the 
" Forty Immortals " of the French Academy, for im- 
provements in the microscope. The Revolution drove 
him from France ; he barely escaped from the mob and 
from prison. In London he achieved distinction as a 
type-founder. "Bessemer type" lasted nearly twice as 
long as other type. 

Henry's father perceived that his son was a " chip off 
the old block." On a visit to London he purchased for 



HENRY BESSEMER. 187 

the boy " one of those beautiful Holtzappel foot-lathes," 
and the youth studied and practised turning, with all 
the enthusiasm of genius and youth. At eighteen he 
went to London, and invented a machine to make pat- 
terns of Utrecht velvet. 

Bessemer's inventions indicate a mental activity and 
versatility, as "a keen observer, original thinker, and 
clever inventor, rarely or never equalled. In two con- 
secutive years Mr. Bessemer took out twenty-seven 
patents; in some instances, four or five for the most 
diverse subjects in a single day. For improvements in 
sugar manufacture, he was awarded the Prince Albert 
gold medal. He extracted eighty-five per cent, of juice 
from the cane. Scott Kussell came next, but fell short 
ten per cent., although he used a powerful press." 

To this day the mechanical means of making Bes- 
semer's gold paint remains a secret. At first he made 
one thousand per cent, profit ; it still yields three hun- 
dred per cent, profit. " Three out of my five assistants 
have died ; if the other two were to die, and myself, 
too, no one would know what the invention is." But, 
after writing thus in 1871, Bessemer rewarded their 
faithfulness by handing over to these two men the large 
and profitable business of the bronze-powder and gold- 
paint factory at Camden Town. 

But the invention which placed his name with those 
of Watt, Arkwright, Stephenson, and other revolution- 
ists of methods, was his method of making " Bessemer 
steel." 

" STRONGER METAL FOR GUNS." 

" The shots rotate properly," said Commander Minie 
to Bessemer, " but if you cannot get stronger metal for 
your guns, such heavy projectiles will be of little use." 



188 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

Bessemer was exhibiting to the French authorities at 
Vincennes his elongated projectiles from a light cast- 
iron smooth-bore gun. " Stronger metal for the guns ! " 
— that was the problem; his mind instantly grappled 
with it, and he finally solved it. 

Up to 1740 the finest steel made by the Hindoos cost 
£10,000 a ton. Huntsman's process produced equally 
good steel for £50 to £100 a ton. 

" Bessemer had no connection with the iron or steel 
trade, and knew little or nothing of metallurgy." This 
was a disadvantage, yet an advantage; for he entered 
on his career untrammelled by notions. " Persons wholly 
unconnected with a particular business," he says, " are 
the men who make all the great inventions of the age." 

About eighteen months he experimented, when he was 
successful. Then he engaged St. Pancras, the old resi- 
dence of Richard Baxter, for experimental iron works. 
" The primitive apparatus being ready, the engine was 
made to force streams of air, under high pressure, 
through the bottom of the vessel, which was lined with 
fire-clay ; the stoker, in some bewilderment, poured in 
the liquefied metal. Instantly, out came a volcanic erup- 
tion of such dazzling coruscations as had never been seen 
before. The heat was so extreme that the iron-holders 
seemed about to melt. They were soon relieved by find- 
ing that the decarburization or combustion had expended 
its fury ; and, most wonderful of all, the product was 
steel. The new metal was tried; its quality was good. 
The problem was solved. The new process seemed suc- 
cessful. The inventor was elated. 

" Astonished at his own success, he went to the Patent 
Office and examined all the patents to see whether any- 
body had done the same thing before. He found no 
trace of such an operation, but observed that steam had 



HENRY BESSEMER. 189 

been used in that way. So he specified both in his 
patent." " The result of my experiment," he says, 
" showed me that the highest temperature ever known in 
the arts can be produced by the simple introduction of 
atmospheric air into cast iron." 

When Bessemer was to read his account a gentleman 
at a hotel said : " Clay, I want you to go down with me 
this morning. A fellow has come down from London to 
read a paper on making steel from cast iron without fuel ! 
Ha ! ha ! ha ! " Before night he laughed the other way, 
and said he " would at once place his establishment under 
the invention." 

Bessemer told them that steel would eventually super- 
sede iron for railway purposes. Napoleon III., his 
greatest patron, at the outset wished it introduced at 
Roulle ; Nasmyth thought it a great discovery. Besse- 
mer was offered £50,000 for the patent. He put large 
royalties upon it. 

But dismal failures occurred. Six weeks later the 
whole thing was voted a " failure " by assembled iron- 
masters. 



" AFTER CLOUDS, SUNSHINE. 77 

It was found that phosphorus and sulphur in the iron 
made the trouble. Eobert Mushet and Bessemer both 
claim to have discovered the remedy, the introduction 
of ferro-manganese or Spiegeleisen. While denying an 
encroachment upon Mushet, Bessemer gave the less for- 
tunate inventor an annuity of three hundred pounds. 
Robert Mushet ever proclaimed that he first applied 
manganese to Bessemer metal ; but Henry Bessemer was 
never proved to have infringed any patent right by the 
free use of manganese. The Bessemer process became 



190 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

perfect, after four years' application and £20,000 spent 
in experiments. 

To make Bessemer iron and steel a commercial suc- 
cess was another thing. Exultant at first, iron-masters 
were afraid of it. 



THE IXVEXTOR BECAME IRON-WORKER. 

But he bought up his licenses already given, built 
works at Sheffield, and began underselling his neighbors 
by twenty pounds a ton. Soon they came to him and 
paid his royalty — some of them very reluctantly. 

This man, who six years before knew no more about 
making iron than a school-boy, was master of iron-mas- 
ters the world over. 

" According to the best information extant, in the 
twenty-one years after the process was first successfully 
worked, the production of steel by it, notwithstanding 
its slow progress at first, amounted to no less than 
twenty-five million tons ; and if we estimate the saving, 
as compared with the old process which it superseded, 
at forty pounds a ton, the total would be about £1,000,- 
000,000. In 1882 the world's production was over four 
million tons. Over one hundred works had adopted it, 
and over three thousand three hundred converters had 
been erected.'' Since the process was perfected the 
annual production of steel in England has been raised 
from fifty thousand to three million tons, while its cost 
has been reduced more than five hundred per cent. The 
United States product for 1897 was 5,475,315 long tons. 

Perhaps in no department of industry has the 
Bessemer process caused greater improvement. The 
superiority of steel to iron rails is not now questioned. 
A steel rail lasts nine times as long as an iron one ; the 



HENRY BESSEMER. 191 

difference in cost is trifling. In 1880 sixteen thousand 
miles of steel rails had been laid in Great Britain ; when 
the twenty-five thousand miles of British railway were 
relaid in steel there would be an annual saving of 
£3,000,000 in the cost of renewal of rails. Were this 
economy extended to the world's railway system the 
annual saving would be over £20,000,000 or $100,000,000. 



HONOR, PROFIT, 

Bessemer was knighted by Queen Victoria in 1879, 
and received gold medals, especially the Albert gold 
medal in 1872, and a gold medal from Napoleon III., 
weighing twelve ounces. 

Profit as well as honor came to him ; when his patents 
expired, in 1870, he had received, in royalties, over a 
million sterling, or, to use his own expression, 1,057,748 
"of the beautiful little gold medals issued by the Eoyal 
Mint, with the benign features of her most gracious 
Majesty Queen Victoria stamped upon them." The 
Sheffield works had yielded the owners eighty-one times 
their original capital in fourteen years ; that is, their 
profit every two months paid for the original investment. 

Bessemer's inventive brain ceased its work on earth 
March 14, 1898. He looked back upon eighty-five years. 
Abraham Hewitt, rehearsing the effects of his great in- 
vention upon travel, transportation, and labor, said that 
he was practically, though not theoretically, the " great 
apostle of Democracy," and "printing, the mariner's 
compass, the discovery of America, and the steam engine, 
are the only capital events in modern history which 
belong to the same category as the Bessemer process." 

Two towns in the United States are named for him — 
Bessemer, Michigan, and Bessemer, Alabama. 



192 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

"Bessemer earned and merited all he got. His im- 
mortal contribution to the welfare of humanity was the 
result of no accident, but of toil, self-sacrifice, devotion, 
and fortitude. He became very rich, but his personal 
fortune, compared with the addition which he made to 
the wealth of the world, was but as a grain of sand on a 
beach, or one star in the sky." 




ROBERT BONNER. 



XXXI. 

PRUDENCE, PERSEVERANCE, AND ENTERPRISE 
OF ROBERT BONNER. 



Robert Bonder was "a Scotchman born in Ireland/' 
at Londonderry, April 24, 1824; and lie became presi- 
dent of the " Scotch-Irish Society of America." He 
came to America in 1839. As a mere boy, he worked in 
the printing-office of the " Hartford Conrant," as an ap- 
prentice, at twenty-five dollars the first year, thirty-five 
for the second, and forty-five for the third, with board 
and lodging. The paper had a circulation then of only 
five hundred copies. " I had a great deal of typesetting 
to do," he said, " and it was hard work." He felt elated 
when he was hired as printer, and also when, for good 
work later, he was given an extra twelve cents an hour. 

"A printing-office is not a bad school," said Mr. Bonner 
to me not long ago, " and from setting up good literature 
in type I learned many things, simply from reading the 
articles I set up. I can never forget one great truth that 
came to me unexpectedly one day. I was setting up an 
article by Ralph Waldo Emerson, when I came across 
these words : 

u ' O discontented man! Whatever you want, pay the price and 
take it.' 

" Those words made a profound impression upon my 
youthful mind. I soon saw that work is the price paid 

193 



194 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

for all success, and from that time on I have been will- 
ing to pay the price. In the printing-office in Hartford 
I did my best, and was promoted when the time came, 
and so it continued." 

Young Bonner was the quickest typesetter in the office 
of the " Hartford Courant," and on one occasion set up 
the president's message at the rate of seventeen hundred 
ems an hour, to enable that paper to get the message out 
in advance of other papers. He proved so intelligent as a 
printer that he sometimes occupied the editorial chair. 

" How did you come to found the ' New York Ledger,' 
Mr. Bonner ? " I asked. 

Mr. Bonner's bright face became brighter still at 
mention of that publication with which his name and 
fame are inseparably connected, and he went on in his 
plain, unpretentious way to tell the story of his Aladdin- 
like rise to wealth through the novel and magnificent 
business methods which he introduced in the manage- 
ment of that paper. 

"The 'New York Ledger,' was, in 1850, a small finan- 
cial sheet known as the ' Merchants' Ledger.' I was then 
employed upon it, and I had n't been there long when 
the proprietor wanted to sell, and I bought him out. I 
ran the paper a short time as a financial paper, and then 
gradually converted it into a family journal. 

" My ideal of a story, first of all," he continued, " was 
that not a word should appear in it that would cause a 
mother embarrassment if one of her children should 
stop her while she was reading and ask, ' Mamma, what 
does that mean ? ' 

" When I gradually substituted reading matter in my 
journal, its circulation was increased, and I was very 
much encouraged. My first feat of enterprise was in 
1853, when I engaged Mrs. Sigourney to contribute a 



ROBERT BONNER. 195 

poem every week, which she continued to do until the 
day of her death. Two years later I engaged Fanny Fern. 

"She was, at that time, by far the most popular 
woman writer of the day, but she had never written for 
the press. Her latest book had just reached an enor- 
mous sale, and she rather looked down upon newspaper 
work. I first offered her twenty-five dollars a column 
for a story. She refused it. I wrote her again and 
offered fifty dollars a column. This she also declined, 
but the return mail brought her another offer from me 
of seventy-five dollars a column. Upon this she said to 
a friend, ' I like the spirit of that man Bonner, and I 
wish you would go down and see him. 7 Her friend came, 
and I arranged to give her a thousand dollars for a ten- 
column story. The story was published, and all the 
newspapers were talking of my unheard-of extrava- 
gance in paying such a sum for a story. I had fifty 
thousand dollars' worth of free advertising out of the 
arrangement, and people began to ask for the ' Ledger.' 
Before that I had trouble to get the newsdealers to take 
the - ' Ledger.' Afterwards they were very glad to get it." 

Mr. Bonner then went on to tell of his dealings with 
Henry Ward Beecher. Mr. Bonner first became ac- 
quainted with the great preacher through a poem which 
Mr. Beecher sent to the "Ledger," in behalf of a friend. 
Mr. Bonner wrote -back that he did n't want poetry, but 
would be glad to have Mr. Beecher himself write some- 
thing for the paper. " I offered him two thousand dollars 
a year for a half to three-quarters of a column every 
week. He accepted the offer, and from that time until his 
death he was a regular contributor." 

"You also paid him thirty thousand dollars for his 
novel, ' Norwood,' did you not ? Was n't that a large 
price for a novel ? " 



196 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

" Yes, I paid him. that, but it was a good business ven- 
ture, for the whole country was soon talking of it, and 
the sale of the ' Ledger ' was wonderfully increased. 

"I also paid Edward Everett ten thousand dollars for 
a series of articles. Mr. Everett was then at the height 
of his fame, having been president of Harvard college 
and minister to England. He was very anxious that 
Mount Vernon should be bought and preserved. He was 
lecturing over the country to help the fund for that pur- 
pose, and I told him that if he would write me the arti- 
cles, I would give ten thousand dollars to the fund. He 
accepted the offer, and the i Ledger ' was again the most 
talked-of paper in the country, and added tens of thou- 
sands to its already great list of readers." 

For the " Ledger " Mr. Bonner secured a poem from 
Longfellow, a novel from Dickens, for which he paid five 
thousand dollars, and a poem from Tennyson. They made 
his paper read, and gave his readers satisfaction in the 
value of what they read. 

Kobert Bonner never claimed or received all the credit 
due to him for his remarkable enterprise in advertising. 
His manner of commending the " Ledger " to the people 
was wholly his own. When he startled the public by his 
extravagance in taking columns of a daily journal, or one 
entire side, he secured the end he had in View. His 
method of repeating three or four lines, such as, — 
" Fanny Fern writes only for the l Ledger/ " — or, " Kead 
Mrs. Southworth's new story in the i Ledger,' " — and 
this repeated over and over again, till men turned from 
it in disgust, and did not conceal their ill-temper, was a 
system of itself. " What is the use," said a man to Mr. 
Bonner, " of your taking the whole side of the ' Herald,' 
and repeating that statement a thousand times ? " 
"Would you have asked that question," replied Mr. 



ROBERT BONNER. 197 

Bonner, " if I had inserted it but once ? I put it in to 
attract your attention, and make you ask that question." 

In New York Mr. Bonner soon conquered his way to 
a place among prominent, leading, and successful men. 
He was willing to dare ; and he succeeded. He some- 
times put up every dollar he had in bringing his enter- 
prises to public attention, but he would not get into debt, 
and always refused to accept credit. 

" May I ask you when you began to save, Mr. Bonner, 
and how you accumulated your first hundred dollars ? " 

" I always saved something," replied Mr. Bonner. 
"Even when I was making only thirty-five and forty 
dollars a year I managed to save a little. I never ac- 
cumulated money for the sake of getting rich, though. I 
saved because I knew it was best to live within my in- 
come, however small, and have something laid up for a 
rainy day. Don't you know that Dickens makes a char- 
acter in one of his works say these words, or something 
similar : ' James Smith makes a hundred pounds a year, 
and he spends a hundred and ten pounds. Result, — 
misery. John Jones makes a hundred pounds a year, 
and spends only ninety. Result, — happiness. 7 If a man 
spends more than he makes he is bound to be miserable ; 
but if he saves something he will have a feeling of con- 
tentment. 

"I saved my first hundred dollars, however, after I 
left Hartford, and came to New York to make my living. 
I was almost of age before I began depositing in a bank. 
One day I found that I had seventy dollars ahead, and 
with that I opened an account in the Chambers Street 
Savings Bank. I kept up my deposits in that bank until 
they amounted to a thousand dollars a week. One day I 
noticed that the cashier had put an item of three dollars 
and some cents in red ink below my last deposit. This 



198 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

was my first interest. ' Why/ said I, i I did not have to 
work for that/ and I then first realized that money would 
make money. It seemed wonderful to me." 

Mr. Bonner's charities were always liberal, practical, 
generous ; putting his money where it would do the most 
good to his fellowmen. 

THE BONNER HORSES. 

Mr. Bonner had a manly love for fine horses. He did 
not love them as a gambler, for the stakes, for he never 
allowed his horses to race for money. He loved them as 
they loved horses who carved them on the friezes of the 
Parthenon. His first horse was bought as a remedy for 
a threatened breakdown of health. One day, in 1856, 
his family physician, Doctor Samuel Hall, said : " Rob- 
ert, I we bought a horse for you, and I want one hundred 
dollars to pay for him with. That horse is the only med- 
icine I can give you. Come out now and drive him." 
That was the beginning of a horse career which has made 
Robert Bonner famous. From that day to his death he 
owned horses. 

Maud S. was added in 1880 by purchase from William 
H. Vanderbilt. One day a wealthy horseman called to 
see him. 

" Bonner," said he, " would you like to own Maud 
S.?" 

" Certainly," said the horse lover. 

"Well, I think Vanderbilt would sell her. His eye- 
sight is giving out, and he can't see her as he drives. 
He does n't want this fact known, but I am sure you can 
get her if you make the right kind of an offer." 

Maud S. had then made a record of 2 : 11 J and had done 
record-breaking team work, including the pulling of a 
load of hay in team harness, in which she had " pulled 



ROBERT BONNER. 199 

the whole load." Mr. Vanderbilt wished to dispose of 
the horse to Bonner because he knew the latter would 
use her well. 

After the purchase Maud S. won a series of races, or 
would have won races, but Bonner would enter her in 
none except against time. But she made record runs. 
In 1881 she did her mile in 2 : 10J, driven by W. W. 
Blair, who had driven her in 1880. In 1884 she reduced 
her own record, no horse meanwhile having beaten her, 
to 2 : 09f , and in 1885 she lowered it, driven by John 
Murphy, to 2 : 08f . 

Among Mr. Bonner's other purchases was Sunol. This 
horse he bought of Leland Stanford for forty thousand 
dollars, upon the occasion of a visit to the Palo Alto 
stables. Stanford loved horses as well as Bobert Bonner, 
and the two spent days in the stables. 

After Bonner had paid for Sunol he discovered that 
the horse was lame. "lam going to cure that horse," 
said he, " without letting Leland Stanford know. If I 
tell him he will send me back my check, and I shall be 
obliged to return Sunol. But if I cure the horse I know 
I shall have a prize." 

Mr. Bonner went to work upon Sunol. In curing this 
magnificent animal he developed the veterinary germ 
that afterwards made him the leading authority upon 
horses. Sunol lived to run many a race. And Bonner, 
in curing him, learned a few facts that other horse-ex- 
perts did not know, and he put them into practice. Since 
then, hundreds of prominent men with racing horses 
have called upon him, bringing limping animals, and 
have taken away those that were much better, and would 
soon recover. 

He made the very remarkable yet simple discovery 
that most lame feet are caused by the uneven paring of 



200 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS, 

the horse's hoofs as the shoes are put on. The horse has 
to walk on the side of his foot. After a while, the foot 
becomes lame, the knee gets twisted, and the horse is 
useless for service. 

Mr. Bonner's three sons took the " Ledger " about ten 
years ago. One of them was recently asked his father's 
great characteristic. " Great power," he replied, " of 
concentrating his whole energy upon whatever he took 
in hand ; ability to throw his whole soul into any enter- 
prise which it seemed good to him to undertake." 



XXXII. 

KING OF THE PENNY PRESS. 



It is doubtful whether, in the whole history of jour- 
nalism, there can be found a parallel to this story of a 
young man's rise, through energy and native ability, which 
I have in part prepared from the " London Bookman." 

Before Alfred Harmsworth was twenty-three he pub- 
lished his first periodical, "Answers," with a very small 
capital. Before he was thirty he was a millionaire. 
Now he is chief proprietor of several dailies, and twenty- 
two periodicals, and head of the largest publishing busi- 
ness in the world. Every journal issued has been 
successful ; not one has been discontinued. The Harms- 
worth publications have the largest circulation in almost 
every department of British journalism, including morn- 
ing and evening dailies, and numerous class weeklies, — 
such as women's papers, cycling papers, humorous papers, 
and boys' papers. The total weekly output exceeds seven 
millions. Of the " Daily Mail " nearly four hundred 
thousand copies are sold every day, and the circulation 
continues to increase in spite of the struggles of its older 
contemporaries and the news-agents' objection to half- 
penny papers. 

THE HARMSWORTH FRATERNITY. 

Alfred Harmsworth owns rather more than half of the 
entire property. Harold Harmsworth is the next largest 

201 



202 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

shareholder ; the other brothers following in the order of 
their age. One of the many remarkable features of the 
whole undertaking is the youthfulness of those who initi- 
ated and conduct it. Alfred Harmsworth was born on 
July 15, 1865. He is assisted by five brothers : Harold, 
business manager ; Cecil, literary editor ; Leicester, Al- 
fred's right-hand man in the editorial department ; Hilde- 
brand, and St. John. They will soon be joined by another 
brother, Vyvyan George. Mr. Harmsworth's only regret 
is that he has not more brothers. The average age of 
the whole staff, excluding small boys, is twenty-three 
years. 

The father of Harmsworth was a successful barrister ; 
his mother a daughter of the late William Maffett, of 
Dublin, in which county Alfred Harmsworth was born. 
He was educated at the grammar school, Stamford, Lin- 
colnshire, and under the Rev. J. L. Milne, of Streete 
Court, West-gate-on-Sea. His parents wished him to 
prepare for the bar, but the journalistic instinct asserted 
itself too strongly to be resisted. At fifteen he edited a 
school paper, and at seventeen, after a holiday scamper 
through Europe, he entered the office of the " Illustrated 
London News," as editor of one of William Ingram's 
publications. He has done practically every kind of 
newspaper work, from reporting fires and police-court 
proceedings up to writing for London dailies. At twenty- 
one he married Mary, eldest daughter of Robert Milner, 
of Kidlington, Oxonia. Mrs. Harmsworth writes occa- 
sionally ; for some time she helped her husband in his 
journalistic work. Her literary judgment is excellent. 

THE HARMSWORTH PERIODICALS. 

The following is a complete list of the Harmsworth 
periodicals. They are published every week, with one 



ALFRED HARMS WORTH. 203 

exception. They are penny or half-penny papers, and 
have been established within ten years following 1888 : 
Answers, Comic Cuts, Illustrated Chips, Forget-Me-Not, 
The Funny Wonder, Home, Sweet Home, Halfpenny 
Marvel, Sunday Companion, Union Jack, Piuck Library, 
Boys' Friend, Home Chat, Comic Home Journal, Sunday 
Stories, Home Companion, Fashion Novelties, Eambler, 
The Cycle, Heartsease Library. In addition to this list, 
complete works, " Sixty Years a Queen," and " Nelson 
and his Times," or other books, are occasionally issued 
weekly or monthly. 

Always a hard worker, Alfred Harmsworth continues 
to take active part in the business of which he is the 
head. He is quick and facile, and bears his enormous 
responsibilities lightly. He is in constant communica- 
tion with his editors and principal assistants. Mr. 
Harmsworth is a frequent contributor to his various jour- 
nals, and directs the policy of both the " Daily Mail " 
and the " Evening News." He and his brothers have the 
reins of their business well in hand, and allow no depart- 
ment in any of their publications to get beyond their 
reach. 

The Harms worths' phenomenal success is not to be 
explained by one " secret ; " there are many contributing 
factors. Perhaps the chief are the brothers' unanimity 
of mind and affection, and their knowledge of human 
nature. They not only know exactly what the public 
wants, they also know how to get the best out of those 
who can supply it. Alfred Harmsworth, in particular, 
has studied the science and art of newspaper and periodi- 
cal production in all parts of the globe. Every new 
Harmsworth venture is carefully considered beforehand; 
when necessary, and practicable, experiments are made, 
and every conceivable precaution is taken against failure. 



204 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

Undoubtedly, the system of profit-sharing in vogue in 
the Harm worth establishments has greatly contributed 
to their prosperity. Every Friday evening, employers 
and employed meet for social intercourse and recreation. 
Every member of the staff is welcome, and six or eight 
billiard tables are provided. The employees run a little 
weekly illustrated organ, called " The Cue," for their 
own gratification and amusement. 

EVER STRIVING FOR IMPROVEMENTS. 

The firm is always striving to improve its mechanical 
equipment. The Messrs. Harmsworth have scoured the 
earth in search of the latest and best newspaper appli- 
ances, and their agents are always on the lookout to test 
the newest developments. They use extensively the 
Linotype and Empire typesetting machines, finding them 
a great improvement on hand-composition. They make 
their own printing ink, and have completed arrangements 
by which they can manufacture paper, whenever they 
wish to do so. Their paper-pattern-cutting department 
is the second largest in the kingdom. 

Although Messrs. Harmsworth's machinery scarcely 
ever stops, the mechanical difficulty of getting done rap- 
idly and well the vast amount of printing necessary 
increases from week to week. The " Daily Mail," for 
example, is printed in four different buildings, requiring, 
for its production, not only the costly and up-to-date 
machinery originally provided for it, but also all the 
plant of the " Evening News " and the " News of the 
World." 

RIGHT IDEAS OF JOURNALISM. 

When I asked Mr. Harmsworth to mention some of 
the essentials of success in journalism, he said: 



ALFRED HARMS WORTH. 205 

" I believe in hard work, but hard work is not enough. 
Many people work with their eyes on the ground. I 
believe in travel. Oar young men don't go abroad 
enough. I attribute our family success in no small meas- 
ure to the fact that all my brothers and I have travelled 
extensively. I believe that half the journalistic notions 
of what the public wants to read are wrong. They are 
largely based either on old-fashioned tradition or upon 
the journalist's personal tastes. I believe the public is a 
far better critic than is usually imagined. And I do not 
believe that any amount of advertising will keep up a 
bad thing. The public does not care one iota about size ; 
if anything, a small journal is preferred to a big one. It 
is a broad principle of our business never to compete in 
size with anybody. More money has been lost in journal- 
ism on the theory that the public wants bulk than on any 
other theory. What the public wants is quality, char- 
acter, individuality. 

"I think specialization is already and, as the years 
pass, will become more and more the keynote of success. 
The world's effective workers are constantly increasing 
in number. Competition is steadily growing keener. 
The man who wins recognition in this twentieth century 
will have to do some one thing extremely well. If I 
were giving just one word of advice to a young man I 
should say — concentrate. 

THE CONCENTRATION OF ENERGY. 

" As for myself, I feel that whatever position I have 
attained is due to focusing my energies and time. When 
I went into journalism I made up my mind that I would 
master the business of editing and publishing. This is 
a vast specialty, but then I was very young and had a 
good deal of self-confidence. I was always on the look- 



206 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

out for information, and when I was twenty-one I pub- 
lished a little weekly called < Answers.' Its purpose was 
to give the public fresh facts and knowledge on about 
every subject under the sun, and to sugar-coat the pill with 
light and entertaining articles and stories. To the form 
and appearance of i Answers/ I gave but little attention ; 
it was the kernel inside the shell upon which I concen- 
trated my thoughts. ' Answers ' gave me a good income 
from the start, and has ever since been one of my most 
valuable properties. 

" We are glad to get good American newspaper men in 
London. They are quicker, and have more ideas than 
their English brothers of the pen. My greatest difficulty 
is to get men with new and practical ideas, or with the 
ability to give a new turn to old ones. Not one man in 
a thousand has a brain of this kind, but it is more fre- 
quent among Americans than among my own country- 
men. We welcome the right kind of Americans, but there 
is a wrong kind, which we certainly do not want. 

" To speak aside from journalism, I may say that the 
Americans who are in most demand in England are 
mechanical experts. Except in ship-building, we recog- 
nize your superiority in all things .mechanical. Good 
American electrical engineers, for example, have no diffi- 
culty in obtaining excellent positions in London. In 
electric transit we are far behind you." 



XXXIII. 

JOSEPH JEFFERSON'S SIX MAXIMS. 



Joseph Jefferson stands in high regard among the 
people of the United States ; and his " Six Maxims " sug- 
gest that one element of his strength, and of the strength 
of men like him, is that great men live according to rule. 
To live by method implies that a man is broadly thought- 
ful of life and its conditions, and that he has will, con- 
sistency, and character to conform to what his under- 
standing declares to be desirable. 

Jefferson's " Six Maxims " are these : 

1. The surest way to score a failure is to imitate some one else. 

2. Never act to or at your auditors ; always act for them. 

3. Never try to gauge the intelligence of your audience by the 
price of the seats. 

4. Always keep the promises you make to the public. 

5. Always do the thing you can do best. 

6. Never allow vulgarity or impurity to find a place in your 
performances. 

The first of these rules corresponds to the highest rule 
of elocution as taught in our " schools of expression," 
which is, to get in your own mind and heart a full sense 
of the thought or feeling to be uttered, and then develop 
the expression of it. This does not preclude study of 
models, which every student of art must pursue in order 
to be successful. 

207 



208 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 



DRILLING HIS SON TOM. 

Jefferson gives an interesting illustration of what lie 
meant, in training one of his four sons to play " Eip Van 
Winkle." 

Mr. Jefferson took greatest interest, perhaps, in pre- 
paring Tom for the " Eip Van Winkle " scene in which 
that character regains consciousness after a sleep of 
twenty years. Just before the first rehearsal the older 
man explained his plan of action. 

" Now, Tom, I will lie down as if asleep," he said, in 
effect. " Then I will waken, exactly as I would if I 
were performing on the stage of a crowded theatre. You 
must watch me intently. But you must not try to catch 
the gestures or the facial changes. Never mind the 
outer man ; it is the inner man you must observe. By 
that I mean that you must try to discover the workings 
of my mind. For when I begin to waken as ' Eip Van 
Winkle ' I strive to put myself in the mental attitude 
that would have been his on recovering himself after 
half a lifetime's slumber. I try to express the uncer- 
tainty, the confusion, the hopes, and the fears that would 
crowd the mind of a person passing through such an ex- 
traordinary experience. 

" It is n't necessary that your interpretation should be 
outwardly like mine ; in fact, I should be extremely 
doubtful of your success if it were. There will surely be 
some resemblance, since you are a Jefferson ; and so, no 
matter how yon try to do otherwise, you will probably 
be somewhat imitative. But the great point will be to 
express properly the thoughts and emotions of the wak- 
ening i Eip Van Winkle ' in your own way. Never mind 
just how you do this, and don't try to produce the desired 
effects in the same way every time ; the thing you must 



JOSEPH JEFFERSON. 209 

be concerned with is your own notion of the part and 
your personal feelings when you are playing it. 

" When it conies to your turn to do the wakening act 
I will watch you critically, and I can certainly tell 
whether you have succeeded in feeling the part or not." 

AN IMPROMPTU SUCCESS. 

These six rules Jefferson has conformed to, and to 
them, doubtless, in addition to his great genius, he con- 
siders that he owes his success. He had an aptitude, 
however, to do a thing impromptu, when the time de- 
manded. 

On one occasion, he achieved a degree of success in a 
bit of off-hand acting, which he could not reproduce by 
later studied attempts. He was playing " Mr. Golightly," 
in " Lend Me Five Shillings," his son Charles B. being 
also in the cast. In that play, " Mr. Golightly " wears a 
butterfly necktie fastened to the collar button by a loop 
of rubber string. One night the loop became unbuttoned 
and the butterfly fell to the ground. Jefferson was un- 
conscious of the mishap, but he knew something had hap- 
pened, for scattered auditors were laughing all over the 
house in that hesitating way which shows uncertainty as 
to whether the cause of the laughter is designed or acci- 
dental. Charles B. saw what was the matter, of course, 
and made signs which conveyed the truth to his father. 
When he understood the situation a complicated and 
highly comical look, expressing surprise, annoyance, and 
relief, passed quickly over his face. At sight of this the 
audience, assured that the whole thing was part of the 
" business " and so legitimate cause for laughter, burst 
into a hearty guffaw. Jefferson then picked up the tie 
and buttoned it again to his collar, whereat there was 
more laughter and a round of applause. 



210 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

All this happened in less time than it takes to write it, 
and, the result being a hit, Jefferson determined to intro- 
duce that same business regularly thereafter, and tried it 
next night. But it was not in any sense a success. It 
seemed utterly impossible for the actor to counterfeit the 
facial expressions of perplexity and impatience, followed 
by whimsical comprehension, that had been apparent 
when the business was really an accident, and it had to 
be abandoned before the week was over. 

RIP VAN WINKLE. 

It is said that it is one of the traditions of the Jeffer- 
son family that Boucicault did not believe a phenomenally 
successful piece could be evolved from the "Bip Van 
Winkle " idea. This view of the situation he placed 
definitely and frankly before Mr. Jefferson when asked 
to begin the work. When the piece was finished the 
playwright begged the actor not to attempt its produc- 
tion. 

" You see," pleaded Boucicault, almost in tears, " the 
' Rip Van Winkle ' of the play, though young and lusty 
in the first act, is old, gray-haired, decrepit, and wrinkled 
later on, and, in fact, through all the best part of the 
piece. Now, I have studied the preference of theatre- 
goers closely enough to know that they will not accept 
you as an old man, and I am sure you will play to disas- 
ter whenever you attempt that part." 

But this sort of talk did not shake Jefferson's faith, 
and at this late date it is hardly necessary to say that 
the Boucicault " Rip Van Winkle," as played by Joe Jef- 
ferson, scored an immediate and profitable triumph. 

Mr. Jefferson's personal character has given him the 
confidence of the American public, and his portrayal of 
Irving's sleeping Dutchman has been a matchless success. 



XXXIV. 

SECRET OF BOURKE COCKRAN'S SUCCESS OX 
THE PLATFORM AND AT THE BAR. 



Not very many years ago Bourke Cockran, the famous 
speaker, and one of the most popular orators in the 
country, landed in New York, a stranger, with only one 
hundred dollars to start him in his career. He was a 
strong, healthy young Irishman, ambitious to be some- 
body and do something, and willing to work at any hon- 
orable business until able to gratify his higher aims. He 
was well-educated, and of marked ability, and it was not 
his habit to be idle ; so he secured a place as a clerk in 
A. T. Stewart's store. A month later he became a teacher 
at a public school on Rutgers street, where he gave in- 
struction in French, Latin, and history. Then he ac- 
cepted an appointment as principal of a public school. 
But Bourke Cockran had selected for his life work the 
study and practice of law. All his evenings and spare 
moments were devoted to this, which at once absorbed 
his whole energy. On Saturdays he studied law in the 
office of the late Chauncey Schaffer. At length he gave 
up his place as principal, and for nearly a year lived on 
his savings, and studied. In 1876 he was admitted to 
the bar of New York. He was always possessed of a 
genial nature and ready wit, and made friends quickly 
wherever he went, and it was not long before the young 
man found an open door in his new calling. 

211 



212 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 



HIS EARLY CAREER. 

The beginner's first case was in connection with the 
trial of five men, at White Plains, who were arraigned 
for selling liqnor on Sunday. He defended four of them. 
Three of the four were acquitted, while the jurors dis- 
agreed in the case of the fourth. Frank Larkin, of Sing 
Sing, who was then the leading criminal lawyer of West- 
chester county, defended the fifth, and lost the case. 

In speaking of this, his first success, Mr. Cockran 
described it as " a combination of work and fortuity, 
though a favorable circumstance. Looking back on it 
now," he continued, "it seems to me that the jurors were 
more or less affected by a desire to encourage a young 
man who was beginning. If that was their feeling it 
certainly produced the desired result. Of course that 
trial gave me a confidence in myself that was of incal- 
culable benefit." 

His rise, thenceforth, was rapid. Establishing himself 
as a lawyer in New York City, where he had thousands 
of competitors, he was soon known as a man of great 
ability as an advocate, and of supreme eloquence as a 
speaker. It was only a short time before his practice 
was large and profitable, for he seldom, if ever, lost a 
case, and his faculty of speech, combined with his thor- 
ough study and knowledge of law, enabled him to make 
irresistible arguments in court. He gradually took a 
foremost place among the great lawyers of the metropo- 
lis, and his fame as an orator spread throughout the 
nation. 

I asked Mr. Cockran to tell me something about his 
work, and the way in which he managed to achieve such 
immediate success. 



BOURKE COCKRAN. 213 



SUCCESS THE RESULT OF WORK. 

"You are asking me a question," he replied, "that 
has been presented to me time and again, and one which 
I have never yet been able to answer satisfactorily. I 
think most men are more successful than they deserve 
to be. So far as I am concerned, that is certainly true. 
Generally speaking, however, success is the result, and 
the laudable result, of absorption in your work. 

" No truly ambitious young man will mind working to 
achieve his ambition. If I see a boy dissatisfied at hav- 
ing to wait and study before beginning active work, I 
make up my mind at once that that boy will not succeed 
when at length he does get started. Patience and ardu- 
ous preparation are necessary to success. 

" I believe a man can qualify himself for any calling, 
and will be recognized. There are too many eyes on the 
lookout for him to remain undiscovered. There are 
thousands this moment seeking qualified lawyers, doc- 
tors, bricklayers, pavers, drivers, and day laborers. 
Employers are as anxious to get good service as workers 
to obtain good employment. 

" The passport to success is merit ; and, in my judg- 
ment, there is no other. You can give a young man but 
very little real assistance toward the goal of his ambi- 
tion. If he is in earnest, is persistent, is self-reliant, he 
will succeed by his own merit, whether you assist him or 
not." 

ORATORY A NATURAL GIFT. 

" I suppose you had no training in oratory, Mr. 
Cockran ? " 

" Well, I can hardly say that I had. I think that is 
one gift that comes more naturally to a man than any 
other. I seldom write an address before delivering it ; 



214 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

though, when I have time, I prepare my speeches very 
carefully. I think them out very thoroughly before- 
hand, and then depend largely upon the inspiration of 
the moment for expression. That is the only way to 
produce an effect upon an audience. Let a man know 
what he wants to say, let him plan it out carefully be- 
forehand, and go before his audience with plenty of 
words at his command, and the inspiration of the mo- 
ment will tell what is the proper and telling form of 
expression. I am always unconscious of everything but 
my subject, whenever I produce any good effect. Every- 
thing else sinks out of sight, and I think only of my 
topic and what I want to say. 

A SPEAKER MUST KNOW HIS AUDIENCE. 

"An audience must become one great mass to me 
before I feel that I am expressing myself forcibly. If 
I can distinguish any one face I always fail to do any- 
thing worth mentioning. Unless I lose all conscious- 
ness of individuals, unless my audience becomes one 
being, as it were, which I see in a hazy way, and with 
which I talk as I would face to face with a friend, I can 
do nothing. Everything depends upon the circumstance 
of the moment, in making a speech, and how I feel, and 
how the audience feels ; and when a speaker is unable to 
read his auditors, he isn't likely to be successful. A 
speaker must know his audience; he must play upon 
it as one plays upon an instrument. He must know just 
how his hearers feel at each moment. How a speaker 
knows this I cannot tell. It is simply a feeling that 
comes — somehow. In this way he can tell when his 
audience is no longer interested, long before there are 
any signs of it apparent to others ; long before the mov- 
ing and noise begin. There is some sign, some indescrib- 



BOURKE COCKRAN. 215 

able feeling, that warns him. It is a part of a speaker's 
art, given to him by nature." 

" Mr. Cockran," I asked, " in preparing a speech do 
you make notes ? " 

" Yes, occasionally ; it is important to get an outline 
— the principal points impressed indelibly upon your 
mind, so that they are on the tip of your tongue. That 
is particularly necessary, when you have the platform 
to yourself, have no' interruptions, and have no oppor- 
tunity for a cue. But in debate it is a bad plan to have 
a speech prepared, though you should be conversant with 
the subject. You must speak on whatever point the 
debate turns upon. If you do not you are hopelessly 
lost. People do not want irrelevant remarks, entirely 
foreign to the topic under discussion. 

"I will not say," added Mr. Cockran, in reply to a 
question as to his success, " that I have succeeded ; but 
that I have been more successful than I deserved to be." 



XXXV. 

FROM LOO CABIN TO SENATE. 



Albert G. Beveridge, United States Senator from 
Indiana, was born Oct. 6, 1862, in a log cabin in High- 
land County, Ohio. His parents were engaged in farm- 
ing, and were in only ordinary circumstances when the 
war broke out. His father, and his four half-brothers, 
enlisted. His mother was a volunteer nurse. The war 
worked the financial ruin of the family ; and as soon as 
it was over they moved to Illinois, settling near Sullivan 
as tenants. From the first young Beveridge was called 
upon to perform such labors on the farm as his age would 
permit. At ten he worked in every field, except one, sur- 
rounding Sullivan. At fourteen he was a railroad laborer, 
and at sixteen he went into the logging-camps, where 
he was placed in charge of rough men, getting out walnut 
logs, for which Illinois was then famous. He attended 
school only when he could find no work. Aspirations for 
something better were born early, and he began to thirst 
for education. 

FAITHFUL IN WORK, DILIGENT IN STUDY. 

In the logging-camps he had to be content with two or 
three months' schooling a year. Instead of wasting his 
evenings, he spent them in study. When he was seven- 
teen years of age there was a vacancy in the district 

216 



SENATOR BEVERIDGE. 217 

cadetship at West Point, and the congressman announced 
that the place would be filled by competitive examina- 
tion. Beveridge increased his night hours of study, asked 
one day off, rode to Paris, and passed the examination. 
In a list of twenty-five, most of whom were trained in 
city schools, he took second place. He was at work the 
next morning and studying the next evening. 

The ambition of the log-roller attracted the attention 
of Edward Andersoo, a lumberman who, in 1881, ad- 
vanced him fifty dollars with which to enter college. 
With this amount he stepped from the life of a logger 
to that of a student, entering De Pauw University. He 
served as a steward in a college club, and added to his 
original fund of fifty dollars by taking the freshman essay 
prize of twenty-five dollars. In the summer he returned 
to work in Moultrie County harvest fields and broke the 
wheat-cutting records of the country. He carried his 
books with him morning, noon, and night, and studied 
persistently. When he returned to college he began to 
be recognized as an exceptional man. He had shaped his 
course and worked to it. 

HE ENTERED EVERY COMPETITIVE CONTEST. 

While he attended to the duties which fell to him as 
steward of a club, he lost no time. He tried to win every 
prize offered for competitive effort, and he won enough 
money prizes to pay his college expenses for two years. 
His triumphs in college reached their limit when he won 
the State oratorical contest in 1884; and also the inter- 
state competition at Columbus, Ohio, where he met the 
champions of all the Mississippi valley State associations. 
Beveridge was a great social favorite in college, but all 
understood that, if he had lessons unmastered, or was at 
work on any theme or task, he could not be drawn away 



218 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

from his room. It was this uncompromising rule of never 
sacrificing labor for pleasure — together with always aim 
ing for the highest, and never knowing the meaning of 
the word " discouragement " — that has predominated in 
his life. 

His plan of aiming at the highest pinnacle was forci- 
bly demonstrated when he sought a location to practise 
law. Instead of following the example of fellow-students 
in settling in a small town, he went directly to Indianap- 
olis, where competition was the strongest and where the 
reward was greatest. Instead of applying for office in- 
struction under men of smaller calibre, he went directly 
to Gen. Benjamin Harrison and asked to study with 
him. Failing in this, he obtained employment with Mc- 
Donald, Butler, and Mason, who shared prestige with 
Harrison. When he arrived in Indianapolis he wore a 
silk hat and a Prince Albert coat. He believed the the- 
ory that, after all said to the contrary, the coat has some- 
thing to do with the man. Though during his early 
years he often had but one meal a day he always wore 
good clothes and was dignified. He soon became an 
acting third partner, and in 1886 was an opponent of 
General Harrison in a case at issue. In 1889 he opened 
an office of his own, and his first fee was from Governor 
Hovey. 

ORATORICAL POWER. 

Mr. Beveridge's speech-making career began in the 
campaign of 1884, his first meeting being in a black- 
smith shop. It is claimed he has made more speeches 
in Indiana in the last twelve years than any other man. 
His second engagement was attended with an incident 
which brought out many points of character and did 
much in advancing him. It was his first important 



SENATOR BEVERIDGE. 219 

speech. He was advertised by the Republicans of 
Bloomington as " Hon. A. J. Beveridge, of Illinois/' and 
the people from far and near congregated, expecting to 
hear Governor Beveridge of Illinois, — who, by the way, 
was not related to young Beveridge. When the com- 
mittee saw a student of twenty-two step from the train 
and answer to the mighty name of Beveridge there 
was a general impression that the State committee had 
deceived them. Many of the farmers went home in dis- 
gust. Beveridge hurried to the platform. " He was a 
revelation — a dream of oratory and a trip-hammer of 
argument.'' 

The crowd stood spellbound three hours, charmed by 
such speaking as they had never heard before. He said 
afterwards that a failure on that occasion would have 
checked him for many months, and his determination to 
carry his point made him a victor under most discourag- 
ing conditions. Slowly his name passed up and down 
Indiana, and then spread beyond the State boundary 
lines. In 1893 the Union League Club of Chicago se- 
lected him to respond at their Washington's Birthday 
banquet to the toast "Washington as a Patriot." He 
electrified them. Since then he has been in demand in 
Chicago. In 1896 he was selected to close the national 
Republican campaign with a speech in the Chicago 
Auditorium, replying to Altgeld's address delivered at 
Cooper Institute, New York. 

ENERGY THE KEYNOTE OF SUCCESS. 

" If I were to select the prime requisites for success," 
says Mr. Beveridge, " I would say, first of all, energy. 
But equally necessary as energy are concentration and 
determination. Shielded from the wind and hitting in 
the same place every time, little drops of Avater will 



220 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

wear a hole into the living rock. But if the wind blows 
them here and there over a small surface they have little 
effect. Thus with a man's energies — let them be con- 
centrated and persistent. Hard study and hard work 
never injure; no standard is too lofty. But once having 
selected your pinnacle, no matter how difficult the way, 
never, never rest until you have reached it." 



XXXVI. 

ARTISTIC FAME IN A DAY — AFTER LONG 
YEARS OF PREPARATION. 



Paul Weyland Bartlett is a young man, full of 
enthusiasm, who distinguished himself in Paris, but it 
was only after the most toilsome effort. 

Any one who exhibits at the Salon does so with hun- 
dreds of others, and, however admirable a piece of sculpt- 
ure may be, it is very apt to rest unnoticed among the 
vast collection of clays, marbles, and bronzes shown at 
each exhibition. Mr. Bartlett realized this. His work 
might be good, but what of it ? Paris was filled with 
artists of talent. If he exhibited one large piece, he 
courted failure, however undeserved. He studied to 
avoid this. He would not exhibit one, but would display 
hundreds of pieces of sculpture. But the Salon would 
not admit more than two pieces of sculpture by one 
artist. 

It was different with small bronzes. If each piece of 
sculpture were no bigger than his hand, or, at most, his 
two hands, he could put a hundred in a glass case or 
two, and the cases would be admitted and exhibited. 
This he knew. At once he decided to take advantage of 
it. It meant ever so much more work, for it is nearly as 
difficult to model a small design in clay as it is a large one, 
but he would gain in attention and criticism. He toiled 

221 



222 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

devotedly until he had made over a hundred models, — 
perfect, inspiring designs of historic characters, — ani- 
mals, insects ; in short, a small museum of sculptured 
curiosities. These he decided to send, but he was not 
yet satisfied. He knew from long years of apprentice- 
ship in a bronze-casting foundry how to cast in bronze. 
The expense of careful work of this kind is considerable, 
and as he was not wealthy, he could not think of paying 
for having his splendid collection so cast. Still, he 
wanted to exhibit bronzes, and decided to cast his work 
himself. He secured the privilege from the founder 
with whom he had been apprenticed of working in the 
shops. With his own hands he made the molds for his 
statuettes, and cast them in bronze, firing them in such 
a way as to give them all the rare hues shown in the 
finest examples of bronzes handed down from the Greek 
and Eoman period. These he displayed in his case, and 
had it admitted to the Salon. Then he awaited the ver- 
dict. The case containing his exquisite bronzes was the 
talk of the exhibition. Hundreds stopped to admire the 
number of delicate and perfect representations and the 
beautiful coloring. Parisian artists examined and ques- 
tioned and gesticulated before the case. This set the 
critics to examining, and they made the artist celebrated. 
Mr. Bartlett found himself famous in a day, the papers 
said ; but he knew better. After years of preparation, 
and months and months of particular and painstaking 
toil, recognition came to him. 

Mr. Bartlett had done good work before this. Indeed, 
he had considerable standing as a sculptor, but it had 
not crystallized into that thing called fame until this 
bright idea was carried out. He went to Paris in early 
life and worked quietly for many years, and then, in 
1889, exhibited some " Dancing Indians " and " Dancing 



PAUL WETLAND BARTLETT. 223 

Bears/' which won for him a gold medal, and brought 
him into notice. He revisited the United States then, 
and had virtually decided to stay, when he found, after 
he had accepted some American contracts, that he could 
work better in Europe. He therefore determined to fill 
his American orders in a Parisian studio. 

One order was from the United States government, 
for three statues for the new Congressional Library, — 
one of Galileo, one of Columbus, and the third of Michael 
Angelo. These statues were made in Paris, but the 
young sculptor respected American sentiment in the 
matter ; and so, in 1897, he shipped a plaster cast of 
Columbus to New York, to be cast in bronze, although it 
could have been much more cheaply cast on the other side. 
It was the first ever shipped across the Atlantic to be 
cast in America. 

The third statue of the series, Michael Angelo, was 
also modelled in Paris and shipped to this country, where 
it was cast. These brought to Mr. Bartlett much favor- 
able comment and praise. 

The Columbus is a colossal figure, with power ex- 
pressed in every line of the face and every fold of the 
cloak. It is one of the most commanding works pro- 
duced in late years. 

At present, Mr. Bartlett is in New York, and has 
decided to stay in America. He has taken a large 
studio, and accepted several American contracts, which 
he purposes to execute here. No one has a greater 
knowledge of bronze and bronze-casting than this young 
man, and he has the advantage of being a tireless worker. 
He steers clear of specialties, that dangerous rock on 
which so much talent has foundered, and is as brilliant 
in his execution of a " Torso of a Girl," or of a " Dead 
Lion," as he is in his historical figures. His poetical 



224 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

organization and delicate touch are also exemplified in a 
door of a mausoleum, which he recently completed, and 
which now stands in Woodlawn Cemetery, wherein the 
ethereal form of a woman stands surrounded by poppies 
and leaves. He has also done a figure of a man bent 
with grief, which is particularly fine. The muscles on the 
back and arms stand out with all the force of some great 
passionate grief that overpowers him. His equestrian 
statue of General Hooker has attracted great attention. 
Mr. Bartlett is only thirty-five years of age, but his 
talent is mature, and of all the younger sculptors, cer- 
tainly no one has exhibited more evidence of genius. 




DANIEL C. FRENCH. 



XXXVII. 

INSPIRATION OF THE SCULPTOR'S ART 

THE CHARM OF GOOD WORK; UNHASTING, 
UNRESTING. 



No American sculptor is better known than Daniel G. 
French. His work, in conjunction with Edward C. 
Potter, at the World's Fair, in Chicago, made these two 
great artists famous in both hemispheres. The magnifi- 
cent statue of "The Republic," worthy of its mighty 
subject, evoked the admiration of every visitor to the ex- 
hibition, and the figure of the farmer leaning against his 
horse attracted general praise. The Grant statue, re- 
cently unveiled in Philadelphia, shows that Messrs. 
French and Potter continue to worthily represent the 
highest type of American art. 

I found Mr. French a courteous, unassuming gentle- 
man, wrapped up in his work, yet in keen sympathy 
with the outside world. 

" Yes," he said, in answer to my opening remark, " I 
am always busy, and work hard. Many people have an 
idea that a painter or a sculptor does a little work now 
and then, when in the humor, or when under an inspira- 
tion," and he laughed. " We have to work as hard as 
any one else if we wish to accomplish anything." 

" But are there not times when you work harder than 
at others ? " 

225 



226 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

" Yes, that might be called inspiration. Most of my 
World's Fair work was done in one-eighth of the time 
that I usually allow, and perhaps it was some of my 
best. When Mr. Potter and myself work together he 
attends to the animal and I to the human figures. We 
both adhere to our own parts, although we may criticise 
each other's labors. My statue called i The Kepublic ' 
was a tremendous piece of work. The model you will 
see at the fountain in the Siegel-Cooper Company's store. 
It had to be enlarged many times. It was enlarged in 
Chicago, by measurement, under my immediate super- 
vision, but the head, which was as high as this room, I 
did myself, fearful of even allowing it to be touched by 
others." 

" Did you have to fight your way in the world at first, 
Mr. French, before you were recognized ? " I asked. 

" No, I can give you no tale of povert}'," he said, 
smiling, " although, like everyone else, I have had to 
work for recognition. My father was a judge, and well- 
to-do. I was born in Exeter, New Hampshire, forty-nine 
years ago. We moved to Concord, Massachusetts, Emer- 
son's town, and it was there that my talent, if you are 
pleased to call it so, was discovered by accident. I was 
always fond of making snow images, and of cutting fig- 
ures out of wood, and did a little drawing. Miss Alcott, 
sister of the writer, was a sculptor herself, and noticed 
my bent, particularly my carving of figures out of wood. 
She offered to take me in hand, and my rapid progress 
seemed to warrant her confidence in me. My first work 
was a bust of my father. The family thought it some- 
thing wonderful and hailed me as a prodigy. It was a 
likeness, but really nothing to speak of. That was when 
I was eighteen years old. 

" In those days," continued Mr. French, becoming 



DANIEL C. FRENCH. 227 

reminiscent, " there were no studios in Boston where one 
could study sculpture. Dr. William Rimmer taught 
artistic anatomy, and to him I went. I have always felt 
that I owe more to him than to any other man, so far as 
my art is concerned." 

"And then?" 

" I came to New York and attended the studio of John 
Quincy Adams Ward. I was then nearly twenty." 

When Mr. French went back to Concord, Mass., he 
produced the " Minute Man." At first it was only a 
small model, and was exhibited in the town hall. But 
it drew attention and admiration. The anniversary 
of the battle of Lexington was at hand, and the young 
man was surprised by an order to make a statue after 
the model. In speaking of this Mr. French said : 

" I do not see how I did it. It must have been purely a 
work of inspiration, for I was still young in my art as well 
as in years, yet I consider it the best thing I ever did." 

He spoke with such feeling that I was inclined to ask 
if, after a statue was completed, he did not feel that it 
was almost human, " a child of his brain," and if he did 
not become loath to part with it. 

" Sometimes," was the answer, "but not always. In 
most cases I become so weary with many weeks and 
months of work that I am glad when it is finished and 
out of the way. On the other hand, one becomes very 
much attached to work into which he puts real thought." 

In 1875 Mr. French went abroad and studied in the 
studio of Thomas Ball, in Florence. 

"I remained there till 1876," said Mr. French, "but 
did not work hard or accomplish much." 

Mr. French next moved to Washington and opened a 
studio. He did much to beautify buildings at the capi- 
tal, and executed groups for the custom-house at St. 



228 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

Louis, and for the post-office in Philadelphia. The young 
man's reputation was rising, and in 1882 he completed 
his statue of John Harvard, erected in Cambridge. 

" You know," he said, " I had nothing but my imagina- 
tion to go by. There were no likenesses of any kind. 
There was not a silhouette, a sketch, or a drawing. But 
I knew that in Harvard's day they had long hair, and 
that they wore an insignificant mustache and lip goatee, 
so I gave him those. I also knew that he died of con- 
sumption, so I made him look delicate. He was a 
scholar or student, so I gave him an intellectual face. In 
England, after the statue was erected, they made vain 
efforts to find an old portrait ; but my version of John 
Harvard remains undisputed." 

" Have you made a study of physiognomy ? " 

" No, I do not believe in it, except as to some recog- 
nized points," he replied. " I have seen so many great 
faces that were disappointing. 

" We often have to break away from the rules of anat- 
omy," continued Mr. French, " and make a statue really 
out of proportion, to give the desired effect. You know 
that one leg of the Apollo Belvedere is two inches longer 
than the other. You would never notice the fact unless 
your attention was drawn to it. If I thought I could 
improve an arm as to general appearance by lengthening 
or shortening it, I would not hesitate a minute." 

Mr. French's house is connected with his studio. The 
latter is in the rear, taking up two stories. The walls 
are covered with plaster casts, and the studio is filled 
with finished and unfinished busts and statues, step- 
ladders and pedestals. 

I spoke of the equestrian statue of General Grant, 
recently unveiled in Philadelphia. 

" Edward C. Potter, who once studied under me," said 



DANIEL C. FRENCH. 229 

Mr. French, " made the horse, while I did the rider. At 
an early date an equestrian statue of George Washington 
which we have made will be unveiled in Paris. 

" Mr. Potter, I would like to say, first studied at the 
Museum of Art, in Boston. Then he came to me. Pre- 
vious to that he had done nothing worth speaking of, 
but in my studio his innate talent came forth directly. 
He went to Paris and studied under Fremiet, the famous 
animal sculptor of the continent. To-day Mr. Potter is 
on the top of the ladder, although he is but forty years 
old. Recently he had a studio in New York, but at 
present he is at Enfield, Mass., his home, where he is 
able to work in seclusion. 

"In dealing with a model," said Mr. French, "we take 
the good points. There are no rules of proportion to go 
by. Eeference is often made to the Greek statues, yet 
no one can prove that their sculptors observed a set of 
rules, but rather the contrary. One form may be as 
perfect as another, yet be of entirely different propor- 
tions." 

WITHOUT HASTE, WITHOUT REST. 

There can be no doubt that Mr. French, from the very 
outset of his career as a sculptor, has both worked hard 
and aimed high, and he continues to work as hard as 
ever, although his circumstances would justify some 
relaxation from labor. Contrary to the experience of 
most men, the progress of Mr. French toward fame has 
never been interrupted by misfortune. Beginning amid 
favorable circumstances, he has gone forward steadily, 
smoothly, and successfully. He has received an abun- 
dant meed of public approval, and fair compensation for 
his productions. His reputation is so well established 
that orders come to him as a matter of course, without 
solicitation or competition on his part. 



XXXVIII. 
A GREAT MARINE PAINTER. 



I stood on W. T. Richards' porch, at Jamestown 
opposite Newport, R.I., gazing across the mouth of 
Narragansett Bay to the ocean and the light-ship rocking 
at its anchorage on the reef, away out on the blue ex- 
panse of scintillating water. Beneath, on the rugged 
shore that rises unevenly for eighty feet, the waves 
rolled and broke defiantly, tossing a mane of white foam 
that glistened in the air like diamonds. This is the pan- 
orama that the great painter enjoys — the sea, the sea, 
never motionless ; and the rocks and breakers and salt- 
breathing spray. 

" Yes," said Mr. Richards, when we were seated in his 
studio, surrounded by sketches and studies ; " my paint- 
ings are all beautiful — before I begin to paint them ; 
the paint spoils them." Then his thoughtful, grayish- 
blue eyes twinkled. 

He is slight, with a finely-shaped head, hair fast be- 
coming white, and regular features. His eyes are keen 
and thoughtful. In manner he is as lively as a young 
man, although nearly sixty years of age. 

" Are you not in love with your pictures ? " I asked. 

" No, except before I paint them. I never paint till I 
have my picture clearly and distinctly formed in my 
mind. I know just exactly what I am going to do, and 

230 



W. T. RICHARDS. 231 

do it, — but 0, how poorly in comparison to my concep- 
tion ! If a conception is urgent, then I paint it, but if 
two are contending in my mind at once, I don't. Some- 
times a picture hangs around and demands to be painted, 
whether I will or no. 

" One of these days," continued Mr. Richards, jocosely, 
" when all of them have been attended to, I will really 
paint a picture." 

" When did you begin to paint ? " 

" I have painted ever since I can remember. When I 
was a boy, living just outside of Philadelphia, in the 
summer I delighted in going with a friend of mine to 
paint in some out-of-the-way nook, some sylvan dell 
with an old worn-out mill. Nothing delighted me more 
than an old weather-stained mill, with its mill-race, cool 
shade, and varying shadows. All my Saturdays and 
holidays were thus spent." 

A PAINTER FROM BOYHOOD. 

Mr. Richards was born in Philadelphia. His first 
instruction was at the Pennsylvania Academy, Philadel- 
phia. And besides this, he learned much from a local 
artist : 

" I used to bother Paul Weber, a Philadelphia painter ; 
I frequented his studio, and received much valuable in- 
struction from him. Then I went abroad for two years, 
travelling through France, Germany, and Italy, making 
sketches as I went. 

" During my early life, I never thought of painting 
the sea, I delighted in a landscape. 

" I remember, one time, I was sitting in a field in New 
England, painting, with an easel before me. A lady 
passing by paused and looked over my shoulder. Sud- 
denly she stepped in front of me and said, with empha- 



232 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

sis : -'The Lord Almighty should be proud of you .' Y"ou 
can imagine my astonishment. I have never had any one 
make that remark since/' he added, laughing. 

" But your marine painting ? " I asked. 

"My first was of a fog off Nantucket. I had gone 
there with my family, for the health of my children. 
That was in 1865, but it was not until 1870 that I de- 
voted almost my whole attention to the sea and the 
coast. There seemed to be a call for them. Somehow 
the people seemed to like the way I dealt with the sea. 
I am passionately fond of it now. 

" No, I seldom take my easel outside and paint from 
life. I make sketches, in color. The ocean is never 
quiet. The color and character of the motion only can 
be taken. I often sit for hours watching it, and then, 
after I have turned the whole subject over in my mind, 
a picture is almost immediately formed. Of course, I 
study and am familiar with the different rock forma- 
tions along our coasts. Different kinds of sand have 
their effect upon the breakers. Very fine sand makes 
a hard, level beach ; the water slides over it smoothly, 
and the breakers begin far out, and come in one after 
another, in layers, — in long, beautifully curving lines, 
till they are only an inch or so deep, leaving pools that 
reflect the light of the sky. I delight in such a beach. 
Old Orchard Beach, Maine, is such a one. The beach at 
Atlantic City, when I was a boy, was beautiful. At the 
upper end there used to be a line of cedars, beyond the 
sea. I used to sit in the cedars and gaze in rhapsody 
upon the ocean. But the sea encroached, and carried the 
sand away, and the cedar roots were undermined. 



W. T. RICHARDS. 233 



AMUSING INCIDENTS. 

" Sometimes very amusing things occur. One day I 
had put on my bathing-suit, and was standing in the 
water, a little above my ankles, studying the waves and 
the light upon them. A man paused on the beach, and 
shouted encouragingly : ' Don't be afraid, there ; go in !' 

" I was also in the habit of sitting on the sand, in front 
of my easel. In consequence, my nose would become 
much sunburnt. I carried a whiskey flask, filled with 
water, to quench my thirst. One day I noticed a man 
loitering on the beach and watching me. Suddenly he 
roused himself sufficiently to call : ' Say, neighbor, if you 
come around to my diggings, I '11 give you some good 
stuff.' I suppose he meant something that would not 
leave the tell-tale odor." 



THE BEAUTY OF HIS WORK. 

When one thinks of W. T. Richards' paintings, it is 
cliffs, detached rocks with breakers pouring over them, 
or a bit of beach with a retreating wave that he has in 
mind. The sails of a ship play but a small part. The 
beauty and truthfulness of his work may be illustrated 
by a certain incident. Two gentlemen had a weighty 
argument over his " Mid-Ocean." One claimed that it 
could not possibty be from anything but a photograph ; 
the other, that it was not from a photograph. At the 
time, Mr. Richards was in England. A cable dispatch 
was sent to him asking him to decide the question. It 
proved to be a product of his memory, aided by sketches, 
and was done in his studio. 

" Do you ever use photographs ? " I asked. 



234 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 



PORTRAYING SCENERY. 

"No; I have often bought them, thinking that they 
would be of some use in keeping my memory awake. 
But they are not. It is seldom I portray a scene exactly. 
Strange to say, to put on canvas a picture of a small sec- 
tion of coast seldom gives the impression of its general 
character. It is necessary to compile, as it were, or to 
condense." 

Mr. Eichards has a winter house in the country out- 
side of Newport. But of late years he has spent most 
of his winters in the British Isles, visiting the picturesque 
and ragged shores of those islands. The North of Scot- 
land and the Shetland Islands have a particular fascina- 
tion for him. 

The United States government, to his grief, has forced 
him to sell his summer home at Jamestown, Conanicut 
Island. Old Fort Dumplings has been demolished, and a 
fort that will command the entrance to Narragansett 
Bay will be built on Mr. Eichards' property. His house 
was built twenty years ago, after his own architectural 
plan. On a stormy day the sea dashes high over the 
rocks in front. 

" Was it a struggle to gain your position ? " I asked 
as I took a parting look at his studio. 

" Of course," he replied. "Art is always a struggle. 
We never attain our highest ambition. Everything is a 
struggle." Then I departed. The sunlight, woven with 
a sea breeze, kissed the coarse grass, the huckleberry 
bushes, and the wild roses that clambered over the 
mounds and rocks outside. Behind me was the blue sea, 
Mr. Eichards standing in the doorway. 



XXXIX. 

YEARS OF LABOR TO MAKE OF PHOTOG- 
RAPHY A FINE ART. 



There is one man among the master photographers 
who so towers above his fellows that there is no longer 
any dispute as to his leadership. His name is Alfred 
Steiglitz, and it has become very widely known. His 
work is so esteemed the world over among those who 
love art in photographs, and who love to study and 
emulate superior and original methods, that is has come 
to have a high market value. Single prints from his 
negatives sell at prices ranging from fifty to one hundred 
dollars. A large card-mounted edition of twelve photo- 
gravures of his pictures having been issued, it was in 
demand at premium at once, selling for fifteen dollars 
per copy. Several of the largest publishing-houses have 
offered him cash bonuses of no trivial proportions to 
write a work on photography, or issue a large volume of 
his pictures in half-tone ; but he is too sincere an artist 
to put himself forward until the time and his own work 
are riper for the results he aims to achieve. 

PATIENCE IN" ART. 

It would be difficult to tell wherein his pictures are 
so superior to those of others. Art is an elusive thing. 
It must be seen. He waited in the rain for hours to get 

235 



236 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

a picture that would express the sweep and vigor of a 
stormy day. He did not snap his camera right and left. 
In the end patience prevailed. A moment came when 
a sweep of gray drops was so evident as to be photo- 
graphable, and he photographed them. Other photog- 
raphers had tried before. Others had taken scores of 
negatives, all dim and lifeless. He, with a little two-by- 
four detective camera, saw his opportunity and made it 
avail, and " A Rainy Day in Fifth Avenue " became one 
of the most generally admired of his many pictures. 

Similarly he was the first to make night pictures — 
a thing never before thought possible in photography. 
He planted his camera in the public ways and stood 
beside it for hours. He did it time and time again, 
making a series of pictures which attracted no end of 
attention. 

It is not all patience, however. There is a fine feeling 
which guides his decision. He would not photograph 
an imperfect picture. He is keen and quick to discover 
what is wanting, to take out and put in. So when you 
see one of his pictures, you will discover that it " looks 
like a painting." There will be that selection of subject, 
that delicacy of treatment, and that charm of situation 
and sentiment which all rare paintings have. Only color 
will be missing, and this, in fact, will be compensated for 
by the clear, crowning reality of the thing. 

It was in Berlin that Mr. Steiglitz first studied photog- 
raphy. There, in 1885, he was studying mechanical 
engineering at the Polytechnic School, when Dr. Vogel, 
of the photo-chemical laboratory, persuaded the young 
man that a course of theoretical photography would be 
of great value in his profession. Mr. Steiglitz took up 
the work and followed it closely, only to become con- 
vinced that it was a worthy field in itself. In 1887, two 



ALFRED STEIGLITZ. 237 

years after, lie entered a picture, " A Good Story," in a 
contest which the London "Amateur Photographer" 
arranged, winning a silver medal. The merit of the 
picture called forth a letter of praise and encouragement 
from the judge of award, Dr. P. H. Emmerson, one of 
the best amateur photographers in England. 

This was merely a beginning. In the twelve years 
which have elapsed since then, he gathered honors 
rapidly, until now he possesses one hundred medals, 
bronze, silver, and gold, and a number of certificates of 
acceptance from institutions which are most conserva- 
tive. The latter he values most, because they represent 
a severer test, and consequently greater appreciation. 

Mr. Steiglitz came to his native city, New York, in 
1888, but did not stay long. He went back to Europe 
for two years, where he made some remarkable studies, 
and then returned. He began by endeavoring to settle 
down in business, not as a mechanical engineer, — for he 
had abandoned that, — but in trade. He could not en- 
dure it, however, and returned to the study of photog- 
raphy, which has since proved so valuable to him. 

It was during the years following Mr. Steiglitz's return 
to America that his best work was done. He attracted 
attention by constantly securing an artistic photograph 
of something never before attempted. He introduced 
new and simpler methods. At the same time he proved 
that a great photograph is worth years of labor to make. 
One instance is particularly well known in photographic 
art circles. It was the making of the picture, " The L 
in a Storm." The picture was made with a little three- 
by-four detective camera. It was a blinding snow scene, 
made at a moment when the elements were most clearly 
picturesque. He made a print of it which was striking 
enough, and which, with most photographers, would have 



238 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

ended the matter. Not so with him. Small as the plate 
was, it contained much that was unessential and that 
weakened the composition. Accordingly all this was 
cut out and an enlarged transparency made of the part 
which was to be kept — about half of the original. In 
the development of this, and the still further enlarged 
negative, much care had to be taken and many plates 
used. The contrast had to be reduced, parts held back, 
and others brought forward. In fact, everything had to 
be done which could, by purely photographic methods, 
tend to convey the impression produced by the original 
scene. Often months of work are devoted to such a 
picture ; not constant, of course, but six or eight hours a 
week. In this case the photograph was taken four or 
five years ago, and only completed a few months since. 
It had grown to an eleven-by-fourteen print, a gem of art. 
It was not so very different from the early copies, yet 
sufficient to make the last pure art. The range of tone 
had been modified so as to make the falling snow more 
prominent, and a couple of girders in the foreground had 
been removed. 

HIS ACHIEVEMENTS AND HIS TASKS. 

But Mr. Steiglitz's work is greater than his reputa- 
tion, and to him is due much of the prominence which 
artistic photography has gained. About two years ago 
there were two large but practically dead clubs in New 
York, one of which boasted Mr. Steiglitz as a member. 
Neither was successful until he took the lead and united 
the two in the Camera Club. Immediately the combina- 
tion of talent and numbers prospered. The membership 
increased to over three hundred, and the entrance fee 
and annual dues were doubled. An eight-thousand-dollar 
photographic plant was installed, free to all members. 



ALFRED STEIGLITZ. 239 

" Camera Notes " was founded, and in little more than a 
year the club had become one of the wealthiest organiza- 
tions of the sort in the country. 

Mr. Steiglitz has organized exhibits which have 
brought out talent the land over. He has set himself 
three tasks, which, if accomplished, will bring recogni- 
tion to photography as an art of the first importance. 

The first of these is to elevate the standard of pictorial 
photography in America. The second to establish an 
annual exhibition, of a much higher order than anything 
yet known, giving no awards, but only a certificate of ac- 
ceptance, which shall be, in itself, a treasure ; third, to 
establish a National Academy of Photography. That 
Mr. Steiglitz will succeed, no one doubts who understands 
his marvellous ability. 



XL. 

AMERICA'S GREAT BANDMASTER — SOUSA : 
HIS TIRELESS ENERGY. 



John Philip Sousa entered his apprenticeship in a 
military band at the age of twelve. The circumstances, 
which he related to me during a recent conversation, 
make it clear, however, that it was not the realization of 
any youthful ambition. 

" When I was a youngster of twelve," said the band- 
master, " I could play the violin fairly well. A circus 
came to Washington, D.C., where I then lived, and re- 
mained for two days. During the morning of the first day, 
one of the showmen passed the house and heard me play- 
ing. He rang the bell, and when I answered it, asked if 
I would not like to join the show. I was at the age 
when it is the height of every boy's ambition to join a 
circus, and was so delighted that I readily agreed to his 
instructions that I was to take my violin, and, without 
telling any one, go quietly to the show grounds late the 
next evening. 

" I could n't, however, keep this stroke of good fortune 
entirely to myself, so I confided it to my chum, who 
lived next door. The effect was entirely unanticipated. 
He straightway became so jealous at the thought that I 
would have an opportunity to witness the circus perform- 

240 




JOHN PHILIP SOUSA. 



JOHN PHILIP SOUS A. 241 

ance free that he told his mother, and that good woman 
promptly laid the whole matter before my father. 

IN THE MARINE BAND. 

" At the time I was, of course, ignorant of this turn of 
affairs ; but early the next morning my father, without a 
word of explanation, told me to put on my best clothes, 
and, without ceremony, bundled me down to the office of 
the Marine Band, where he entered me as an apprentice. 
The age limit at which admission could be gaiued to the 
band corps was fourteen years, and I have always re- 
tained the two years which my father unceremoniously 
added to my age at that time." 

Sousa is of Spanish descent, his father having emi- 
grated from Spain to Portugal by reason of political en- 
tanglements. Thence came the strange fact that, during 
the recent war, American troops marched forward to at- 
tack Spaniards to the music of marches written by this 
descendant of their race. The director's remark that his 
family was one of the oldest in Spain was supplementary 
to an amused denial of that pretty story which has been 
so widely circulated to the effect that the bandmaster's 
name was originally John Philipso, and that when, after 
entering the Marine Band, he signed it with the " U.S.A." 
appended, some intelligent clerk divided it into John 
Philip Sousa. 

HIS FIRST SUCCESSFUL WORK. 

In discussing his opera, " El Capitan," which, when 
produced by De Wolf Hopper several seasons ago, 
achieved such instantaneous success, the composer re- 
marked that it was the sixth opera he had written, the 
others never reaching the dignity of a production. 

As Sousa is preeminently a man of action, so his career 



242 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

and characteristics are best outlined by incidents. One 
in connection with his operatic composition strikingly il- 
lustrates his pluck and determination. Before he attained 
any great degree of prominence in the musical world, 
Sousa submitted an opera to Francis Wilson, offering to 
sell it outright for one thousand five hundred dollars. 
Wilson liked the opera, but the composer was not forti- 
fied by a great name, so he declined to pay more than 
one thousand dollars for the piece. The composer re- 
plied that he had spent the best part of a year on the 
work, and felt that he could not take less than his 
original demand. Wilson was obdurate, and Sousa rue- 
fully put the manuscript back into his portfolio. 

Some time afterwards a march, which the bandmaster 
sent to a well-known publishing-house, caught the public 
favor. The publishers demanded another at once. The 
composer had none at hand, but suddenly thought of the 
inarch in his discarded opera, and forwarded it without 
waiting to select a name. 

While he was pondering thoughtfully on the subject 
of a title, Sousa and a friend one evening went to the 
Auditorium in Chicago, where " America " was then 
being presented. When the mammoth drop curtain, 
with the painted representation of the Liberty Bell, was 
lowered, the bandmaster's companion said, with the sud- 
denness of an inspiration : " There is a name for your 
new march." That night it went on to the publishers. 

Up to date this one selection from the opera for 
which Francis Wilson refused to pay fifteen hundred 
dollars has netted its composer thirty-five thousand 
dollars. 

A MAN WHO NEVER RESTS. 

Sousa has practically no vacations. Throughout the 
greater part of the autumn, winter, and spring, his band 



JOHN PHILIP SOUS A. 243 

is en tour through this country and Canada, giving, as a 
rule, two concerts each day, usually in different towns. 
Daring the summer his time is occupied with daily con- 
certs at Manhattan Beach, near New York. Despite all 
this, he finds time to write several marches or other 
musical selections each year, and for several years past 
has averaged each year an operatic production. Any 
person who is at all conversant with the subject knows 
that the composition of the opera itself is only the be- 
ginning of the composer's labor, and Sousa has invariably 
directed the rehearsals with all the thoroughness and 
attention to detail that might be expected from a less 
busy man. 

The bandmaster is a late riser, and in that, as in other 
details, the routine of his daily life is the embodiment 
of regularity and punctuality. In reply to my question 
as to what produces his never-failing good health, he 
said : " Absolute regularity of life, plenty of sleep, and 
good, plain, substantial food." 

His idea of the most valuable aids, if not essentials to 
success, may be imagined. They are " persistence and 
hard work." The " March King " believes that it is 
only worry, and not hard work, that kills people, and he 
also has confidence that if there be no literal truth in 
the assertion that genius is simply another name for 
hard work, there is at least much of wisdom in the 
saying. 

Many persons who have seen Sousa direct his organi- 
zation make the assertion that the orders conveyed by 
his baton are non-essential — that the band would be 
equally well off without Sousa. This never received a 
fuller refutation than during a recent concert in an East- 
ern city. Two small boys in seats near the front of the 
hall were tittering, but so quietly that it would hardly 



244 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

seem possible that it could be noticed on the stage, espe- 
cially by the bandmaster, whose back was, of course, 
toward the audience. Suddenly, in the middle of a bar, 
his baton fell. Instantly every sound ceased, not a 
note having been sounded after the signal, which could 
not have been anticipated, was given. Wheeling quickly, 
the leader ordered the troublesome youngsters to leave 
the hall, and almost before the audience had realized 
what had happened, the great organization had resumed 
the rendition of the selection, without the loss of a chord. 

HOW SOUSA WORKS. 

In answer to my inquiry as to his methods of work, 
the director said : 

" I think that any musical composer must find his 
periods of work governed largely by inspiration. A 
march or a waltz depends perhaps upon some strain that 
has sufficient melody to carry the entire composition, and 
it is the waiting to catch this embryo note that is some- 
times long. 

" Take my experience with ' The Stars and Stripes 
Forever/ I worked for weeks on the strain that I think 
will impress most persons as the prettiest in the march. 
I carried it in my mind all that time, but I could not 
get the idea transferred to paper just as I wanted. 
When I did accomplish it, there was comparatively 
little delay with the remainder." 

When I asked him about his future work, Mr. Sousa 
said: 

" I have commissions to write several operas, and I 
am at work on a musical composition which I hope to 
make the best thing that I have ever attempted." 



XLI. 

THE BUILDING OF A GREAT UNIVERSITY: 
PIONEER'S HIGH IDEALS AND LOFTY PURPOSES. 



Leland Stanford was a farmer's son, who learned to 
work hard when a boy. He acquired most of his pre- 
liminary " book learning " in a rural district school. 
The story goes that when the boy was but six years 
old, at the homestead at Watervliet, 1ST.Y., he and his 
brothers set to work to clear his father's garden of horse- 
radish, which was regarded as a weed. When the work 
was done Leland suggested that they take the horse- 
radish to Schenectady and sell it. The suggestion was 
adopted and a dollar was realized, the first money that 
Leland Stanford had a share in earning. When he was 
eight years old he and his brothers gathered chestnuts 
and waited until a rise in the price enabled them to sell 
them for twenty-five dollars. 

Leland grew to be a tall and powerful youth, very 
popular with his mates. When he was eighteen his 
father bought a piece of woodland. He offered Leland 
the lumber to do with as he pleased, if he would attend 
to the work of clearing. The young man took his axe, 
hired some helpers at twenty-five cents a day, — then the 
prevailing rate of wages, — and in a few weeks the land 
was cleared. Leland sold the timber to the Mohawk and 

245 



246 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

Hudson River Railroad, and made a profit of twenty-six 
hundred dollars by the transaction. 

HE BECAME A CALIFORNIA PIONEER. 

Next came a move which foreshadowed the man. 
Young Stanford was not so eager to get rich as to devote 
this capital to further money-making ventures. He 
spent it on himself, his own development. Having long 
before determined to be a lawyer, he entered a law office 
in Albany in 1845, and four years afterwards, when 
twenty-three years of age, he was admitted to the bar. 
While he was a student at Albany an event occurred 
which had more influence upon his life, and more to do 
with his success, than any other. He met his future 
wife. Young Stanford went to Port Washington, on 
Lake Michigan, and began the practice of law. Visiting 
Albany again, he married and took his wife to Port 
Washington. 

One night a fire swept away Mr. Stanford's house, 
furniture, and library. But little was left. His brothers 
had gone to California and he determined to follow 
them. The young wife, who remained behind until he 
should establish himself, bade him a tearful good-by, 
with a godspeed which, he afterwards said, was his in- 
spiration throughout the toilsome journey and the first 
months of struggle amid the hard conditions of life then 
existing on the Pacific coast. Leland Stanford, the pos- 
sessor of magnificent health and a fine spirit, was just 
the young man to subdue these conditions to his own 
uses. 

He became a merchant and prospered. His wife 
joined him, and within ten years, so rapid was his rise, he 
was elected governor of California. He was the " war 
governor," the man who, when the eyes of the nation 



L ELAND STANFORD. 247 

were turned anxiously toward California filled with fear 
of its secession from the Union, said: "California will 
stick to the Union." 

THE UNION PACIFIC RAILROAD. 

Eich and beautiful as California was, she was isolated 
from the world ; cut off from the rest of civilization by 
that mighty barrier, the Eocky Mountains. 

" California must be opened to the rest of the country," 
said Leland Stanford. " We must have a railroad across 
the Eockies." 

" It is impossible," replied the engineers ; " the natural 
difficulties are too great." 

" Impossible or not, it shall be done," said Stanford. 

On Feb. 22, 1861, he threw out the first shovelful of 
gravel on the Central Pacific Eailroad, and on May 10 
1869, when the Central and the Union Pacific met at 
Promontory, Utah, eight hundred and thirty miles from 
San Francisco, one thousand and eighty-four miles from 
Omaha, and four thousand nine hundred feet above the 
sea, he held a sledge-hammer of solid silver to whose 
handle were fastened wires affording telegraphic commu- 
nication with the principal cities of the United States. 
Telegraphic business was suspended, for the time, far 
and wide. The last tie, a masterpiece of California laurel 
with silver plates appropriately inscribed, was put into 
place, and the last rails were laid by the two companies. 
The last spikes were handed to him, one of gold from 
California, one of silver from Nevada, and one of iron, 
gold, and silver from Arizona. At the first stroke of 
noon he struck the gold spike, loosing the lightning 
which told the nation that the East and West were 
united. 

This great enterprise brought many millions of dollars 



248 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

to Leland Stanford, and added a vastly greater wealth 
to the Pacific coast. 



A MEMORIAL UNIVERSITY. 

The only child of the Stanfords, a very promising boy, 
died when he was sixteen years old. He had derived from 
his parents their sense of responsibility as the possessor 
of large wealth, and had vaguely formed a plan to found 
in California a great institution of learning, when he 
should reach manhood. After his death, in March, 1884, 
his grief-stricken parents resolved to carry out this plan, 
and thus perpetuate the memory of their boy. And so 
the great Leland Stanford Junior University stands a 
permanent and life-giving monument to the grand and 
noble ideals of a father, mother, and son. 

Of the very extreme private beneficence of Mr. and 
Mrs. Stanford, the general public will never know ; but 
the whole world knows of the Leland Stanford Junior 
University, the noble collection of buildings surrounded 
by the beautiful and luxuriant land of the great Palo 
Alto ranch in California. The endowment of the uni- 
versity is far greater than that of any other educational 
institution in the world. Expense was not considered in 
the work of realizing the founder's purpose, which Mr. 
Stanford expressed in these words : 

"I would have this institution help to fit men and 
women for usefulness in this life by increasing their in- 
dividual power of production, and by making them good 
companions for themselves and for others." 

One of the first departments opened was that of 



LELAND STANFORD. 249 



MANUAL TRAINING. 

The influence has been most helpful in the institution. 
A carpenter is held in the same estimation as a lawyer or 
an artist. 

Each student in the university chooses and pursues the 
studies best adapted to his or her abilities and tastes. 
But each must select one subject for a specialty, and ac- 
quire a deep and wide and accurate understanding of it. 
Mr. Stanford realized that this is the age of the special- 
ist. Much attention is devoted to mechanics at the 
university, but hardly more than to art, as is illustrated 
by the fine galleries of art. The aim of the founder was 
to have the work touch, at least, upon all that is best in 
human endeavor, and embrace the great principles of 
true living. 

HIGH IDEALS AND LOFTY PURPOSES. 

Mrs. Stanford, who has given ten millions of dollars to 
the university, has set forth the aims of the founder in 
these words : 

" My husband's leading idea in the founding of the 
Leland Stanford Junior University was to develop the 
student's powers for attaining personal success. I do 
not mean financial success. His ideal of success was far 
higher. He measured success by but one standard, and 
that was usefulness. Very much more successful nien, 
in his eyes, than a Napoleon Bonaparte or a money king, 
were Isaac Newton and Christopher Columbus. The 
men who have added to the world's riches rather than 
those who have stored up great individual wealth, he es- 
teemed most highly. 

" From the beginning of his manhood he had this ideal 
of success and it was really the foundation of all that he 



250 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

accomplished. He devoted the whole force of his brain 
and character to bringing about results, not because of 
the money there might be in them, but because they 
were important results, worth working for. And when 
wealth did come, he never regarded it as wholly his. He 
felt that it had been acquired through agencies which 
were really the common property of all the people, and 
that it was a great trust, for the proper administration of 
which he was responsible." 



XLIL 

THE NEWSBOY COLLEGE PRESIDENT. 
BY THE LATE FRANCES E. WILLARD. 



He was a little fellow, perhaps seven years old, with 
a fine, well-knit figure and handsome face. 1 His home 
was in a couple of rooms that his mother had hired in 
Chicago, and he and his older sister, who constituted the 
family, lived with her there in circumstances that would 
soon become needy, for she was a soldier's widow with a 
pension quite inadequate to their expenses. " Give me 
a penny," said the little fellow to his sister. The boy 
kept urging with so much persuasive earnestness that at 
length his sister let him have the penny. With this in 
hand he slipped out of the door, down the long flights 
of stairs, and bought of a newsboy the leading evening 
paper. I suppose he got it so cheap because he was such 
a pretty fellow and so young. Hurrying along the street, 
he kept saying, "Who will give me two cents for this 
paper ? " and it was not long until somebody, attracted 
by his handsome face and " taking " manner, bought the 
paper, and the boy ran home to show his sister that his 
capital was doubled. 

From this small beginning he went on increasing his 

1 The subject of this sketch was for some years Miss Willard's stenographer; 
and this article upon his early career was prepared by Miss Willard for the 
Author. 

251 



252 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

capital until lie became a successful newsboy. He had 
to try hard for a place on the curbstone in front of the 
Sherman House, which was the centre of street-car travel 
in those days ; but what with persuasion, persistence, 
and tact, he succeeded as he has done ever since. 
Strange as it may seem, he learned none of the evil ways 
of the street, never wasted a penny on tobacco, liquor, 
or any other evil indulgence, and brought home all that 
he earned to the mother and sister who formed his world. 
As he grew older he went to evening school, and kept up 
with the well-to-do boys who had every opportunity ; 
besides which he learned typewriting and stenography, 
and at the age of fourteen was probably the best expert 
of his years in the United States. The small fingers of 
his right hand were bent out of shape because he began 
holding a pencil all day before the bones were fully 
hardened. 

When he was eighteen years old he went to Evanston, 
Illinois, with his mother and sister, and took the Univer- 
sity course, meanwhile supporting them in comfort in a 
house that he was buying on the instalment plan. From 
boyhood, learning had been as easy to him as play to 
other youngsters, for Nature had bestowed upon him 
nearly all of her best gifts. He made a good income 
during his years of student life, and held a first-rate posi- 
tion in his classes. He was an excellent writer and 
speaker, and was without a fault in his habits of life. 

For three years he was my stenographer ; and, in the 
quiet den where I worked with joyful continuity, — my 
mother sitting near and often suggesting to me a better 
word than the one I was giving, — he helped me as per- 
haps hardly any other ever did ; for his work was at once 
so rapid and so accurate that I did not have to look it 
over, and I was able to put several days' effort into one. 



PRESIDENT RAYMOND. 253 

Mr. George M. Pullman, the palace-car magnate, hav- 
ing heard of the achievements of my stenographer, 
desired his services as private secretary. This was an 
attractive opening, as it promised a high salary and ex- 
cellent advantages for " seeing the world." He travelled 
frequently in Mr. Pullman's parlor car, where they had 
wine at dinner and cigars afterward; but when the 
young secretary declined a glass of wine, his employer, 
to his honor be it spoken, did not urge him to drink, but 
said in effect, " Stick to your principles, young man, you 
have chosen the better part." 

But the exacting life of secretary to a rich railroad 
magnate did not suit the free spirit of our young hero, 
so he gave up the position before the year was out, and 
returned to the University. Bishop J. M. Thoburn, that 
modest man of rich scholarship and royal character, en- 
gaged him soon after as his secretary and companion on 
one of his many missionary voyages to India. Here the 
young man studied Sanskrit, and with his usual ease 
made such progress in the language in a few months as 
would have cost most people years of toil. 

Returning with the Bishop on his trip round the world, 
he completed his studies in the University, and not long 
after married Miss Nettie Hunt, his Evanston classmate, 
who had once excelled him in an oratorical prize contest ; 
and both became connected with the Wisconsin State Uni- 
versity, from which he was promoted to the position of 
president of the University of West Virginia, being at 
that time the youngest college president in the United 
States, or, so far as I know, in the world. His present 
home is at Morgantown, where, in a beautiful mansion, 
he works on, the same brave and kind-natured man, with 
tireless purpose and ever-growing enlargement in charac- 
ter and knowledge, — President Jerome Hall Raymond, 
LL.D. 



254 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

Twenty years of work have placed him where he 
stands to-day, withont influential friends in a country 
where " influence " is of inestimable value, not only in 
politics but in paving the way to all kinds of success. 
Loyalty to his mother, his sister, his home, were cardinal 
doctrines in his creed from the beginning, and this in an 
age when we hear on all sides that the love of home life 
grows cold in the careless heart of youth. "Tell me 
with whom thou goest and I will tell thee what thou 
doest," was the voice heard aud heeded from his earliest 
years. Without a single exterior advantage except his 
fine physique and genial ways, this young Westerner has 
stood with a steadfastness that ought to cheer every 
human being who wishes to " get on " in that real sense 
which means to build for one's self, for God, and for 
humanity an upright character, that from it may radiate 
a successful career. He did not waste time, the stuff 
that life is made of, but he did not consider it wasted 
when he spent it to take a high stand in athletics. A 
specialty is the surest bread- winning instrument in these 
days, and this he early acquired. Conserving habits, 
instead of habits that deteriorate, were his choice from 
day to day ; for he seemed to have an instinct telling 
him that character is habit crystallized, that correct 
habits make worthy life. 



XLIII. 

A TALK WITH GIRLS — HOW TO STUDY. 
BY MARY A. LIVERMORE. 



Very frequently I am asked whether, if I had my 
way, I would have every girl sent to college. I would 
not have every girl sent to college, any more than I 
would every boy, and for the same reason. 

In the early days of higher American education, going 
to college was a dearly-bought privilege, and seriously 
looked upon as a preparation for one of the professions, 
for no one went to college unless he intended to be a 
professional man. Now a college education has become 
a fad, and, in many cases, is as foolish and injurious as 
other fads. Hundreds of men and women are yearly 
entering college simply because it is the thing to do, and 
hundreds of others because they expect to have a " good 
time," which, with a large number of young men, at 
least, means a demoralizing time. I would send neither 
boy nor girl to college unless he or she showed a studi- 
ous tendency, a love of such brain development and 
mind training as a college is intended to give, and whose 
work or position in life would be directly and effectively 
influenced by a college course. Our colleges fail to fit 
for getting a living a large number of those who attend 
them. 

255 



256 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 



TRAINING SCHOOLS. 

Training schools are, in my opinion, the most needed ; 
schools where the girl will be individualized, and her 
education and studies arranged according to her tastes 
and intended work in life. For instance, catering is an 
occupation for which many girls have an innate taste 
and natural talent ; and it is, for a natural caterer, so to 
speak, one of the most profitable occupations. I suppose 
that a successful caterer earns a larger salary than 
the average college president. Of course, one needs a 
thorough knowledge of the different kinds of food and 
their proper preparation, and of purveying and kindred 
subjects. Now what does such a girl want of biology 
and Latin and trigonometry ? A school which shall have 
a department of domestic sciences is not only a necessity 
for girls like these born caterers, and for women who 
would become professional cooks, but for every girl who 
ever expects to be mistress of a home. It often makes 
all the difference between a happy and an unhappy 
home whether the mistress knows how to cook well and 
to manage a home or not. Even if she is not obliged to 
do her own cooking, she should know when it is well 
done, and how to superintend it. I would advise even 
those girls whose work is to be purely professional to 
spend, if possible, some time in learning to care for a 
home, for marriage is, of course, one of their strong 
possibilities. 

The training school should embrace departments for 
many kinds of work, — dressmaking, millinery, short- 
hand, painting, sculpture, journalism, — every kind of 
practical work by which one's natural tastes and abilities 
incline her to gain a livelihood. The most of us need to 
educate the hands as well as the head. We need to learn 



MART A. LIVERMORE. 257 

to do things by doing them. Most pnpils come out of 
school with no more practical ability to gain a livelihood 
than they had when they entered. 

DOING ONE THING WELL. 

Again, a majority of pupils take up too many studies. 
While visiting a certain college, I was told of a young 
woman who was laboriug with nearly every study on the 
list, with insufficient time for any of them. 

"I don't see," I said to the professor with whom I 
was speaking, "as this girl is going to be fit for any- 
thing, even teaching, when she leaves college. She will 
not know enough of any one thing to make the knowl- 
edge of any value as a bread-winning acquisition." 

" But think of her mental unf oldment ! " she said. 

When Anne Whitney was modelling the statue of 
Lief Ericson one day, I called on her in company with 
Maria Mitchell, the astronomer. To my great surprise 
the latter knew nothing of the intrepid Norseman's 
story, and could not remember having ever heard of his 
discoveries. Yet she was a superb student in one of the 
most difficult of all sciences. She did one thing well, 
and so, for that matter, did Miss Whitney in her 
sculpture. 

When one considers what a practical working knowl- 
edge of astronomy means, she realizes that, surely, one 
life is too short to gain eminence, or even standing room, 
among astronomers, and to give any appreciable time to 
the doing of anything else. One must be master of the 
higher mathematics, know all the construction of tele- 
scopes, understand the laws which govern the planets 
and those which are constantly at work in the atmosphere, 
and many other difficult things. In fact, there is no im- 
portant work or calling — and there is scarcely a calling 



258 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

that does not entail important work — that does not, 
with its main features and correlations, mean concentra- 
tion and absorption, and the letting go, or never taking 
hold, to any great extent, of most other things in the 
world. 

GOOD TASTE IS IMPERATIVE. 

A reform which is imperatively needed, in a large 
number of educational institutions, is iu the matter of 
caring for the person, the clothing, the apartments, and 
personal manners. Every girl should be taught that to 
be slatternly in dress, rude or coarse in manner, if not 
a crime, is near to it. She should be taught and required 
to keep her room and bureau and closets and dress in 
order, her underclothing and stockings whole and neat, 
to enter and leave a room properly, and to know how 
to greet people ; in short, her whole self — physical, 
mental, and moral — should receive benefit and training 
from the school she attends. I have in mind a college 
graduate who can glibly decline Latin nouns, speak 
German as fluently as English, solve problems which it 
makes one's head ache to look at, but whose hair looks 
like a brush broom; whose feet at heel and toe come 
through her stockings ; whose clothing is little better 
than dirty rags'; and whose closets and bureau drawers 
are simply places into which to fling, without order or 
folding, anything which does not happen to be in use. 
This kind of girl is the exception, but no doubt every 
educational institution has one or more like her, and 
each should make provision for her needs. 

The education of women — in spite of so much to be 
desired in the present system — is an inestimable privi- 
lege and blessing. The system of education for both 
sexes is bound to be radically changed before long. The 



MARY A. LI VERM ORE. 259 

schools, and especially the high schools, will be for the 
pupils, not the pupils for the schools. 

A CHANGE HAS BEEN WROUGHT. 

As for woman's education, and the changes it has 
brought about in her condition and outlook, it is not only 
her education, but man's as well. The thought which once 
universally and necessarily obtained, that every woman, 
while young or middle-aged, must look to marriage as the 
only resource for providing for old age, gave men the 
idea that the simple fact of their being men, irrespective 
of their worth or worthlessness, made them something 
which women must have, and would, of necessity, accept 
as husbands. Thousands agreed, in those days, to ac- 
cept, for homes, men for whom they had not even re- 
spect. There were many love matches and contracts of 
marriage where respect and affection were the basis of 
the union, but a woman could not then afford to ask if 
her wooer, unless he was one of a number, was the choice 
of her heart, or in any respect her ideal man ; he was her 
one hope of a home and maintenance in old age, and it 
was usually a choice between him as a husband and pau- 
perism. These inharmonious and often unfit marriages 
led to inharmonious and unhappy families, and so the evil 
was increased and multiplied. No wonder that, in those 
days, men became fully possessed of the idea that they 
owned the feminine half of humanity, and could do with 
it as they would, and need not, except at their own sweet 
wills, make, in themselves, any changes in order to be 
lords and masters and the desired of all women. 

HIGHER MARRIAGE IDEALS. 

But all that has passed, and woman is rapidly taking 
what belongs to her. She is no longer dependent upon 



260 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

any one but herself for a home. I visit many beautiful 
and satisfactory homes where no men are members of the 
family. If the women who make these homes miss some- 
thing, they also gain something, for marriage, however 
happy, imposes restrictions and limitations. The hun- 
dred most interesting and capable women I know are not 
married. Among them are Susan B. Anthony, Dr. 
Zakrzewska, Anne Whitney, and many of their peers. I 
know it is not for lack of opportunity. What, then, is 
the reason ? It is probably that, having, with the work 
which their professions bring, full and satisfying lives, 
and incomes larger than those of the majority of men, 
they can afford to go through life single, unless they 
meet their ideals, — the fully satisfactory men whom they 
would choose to accept as life-mates. 

This new position of woman, making her man's 
friend, companion, and equal, but which enables her to 
choose or reject him as a suitor, not only polishes, refines, 
and stimulates him, as he, in turn, polishes, refines, and 
stimulates her, but teaches him that, if he would be de- 
sired as a husband, he must make himself desirable, aside 
from his power of providing a home, and inspires him to 
gain greater manliness and cultivate finer tastes. 



XLIV. 

OUR UNCROWNED QUEEN: 

ONE OF THE MOST INFLUENTIAL CAREERS OF THE 
NINETEENTH CENTURY. 



The truth that " life develops from within " was never 
more signally illustrated than by the circumstances and 
the achievements of Frances Willard, whose life has left 
the most important results accomplished by any Ameri- 
can woman, living or dead. When Isabel, Lady Henry 
Somerset, gave to Frances E. Willard the title of " The 
Uncrowned Queen of America," she crystallized, in that 
expression, the salient truth of Miss Willard's relation 
to the men and women of her native land. 

Our uncrowned queen — she reigned by Divine ap- 
pointment ; her sceptre was the Word of Christ ; her 
authority the law of love. 

"born and nourished in miracles." 
It is a significant fact that the royal souls who have 
contributed most of value to social progress, — which 
includes all moral and spiritual advancement, — it is 
most significant that the royal natures who have con- 
tributed most to this general progress and elevation of 
humanity have not been born in the purple. Glancing 
at even a few in our own country and in our own time, 

261 



262 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

— Lincoln, Garrison, Emerson, Lucy Stone, Mary A. 
Livermore, a galaxy that must stand forever in shining 
light, — we see that each and all were nurtured in early 
self-denial, and under the limitations of poverty. 

The realm of ideals and the realm of personal luxury 
and self-indulgence are antipodes. Well is it said of a 
royal soul : — 

" Born and nourished in miracles, 
His feet were shod with golden bells." 

The miracles are wrought outward, from within. 
They are the transfiguration of circumstances by the 
indomitable and irresistible force of character. 

EARLY ENVIRONMENT AND INFLUENCES. 

Frances Elizabeth Willard was born in Churchville 
(near Rochester), N.Y., on Sept. 28, 1839, and died at 
the Empire Hotel, New York City, on Feb. 18, 1898. 
Her parents, Josiah F. and Mary Willard, were of the 
best New England type. The Willards traced their de- 
scent from a notable English forefather. One of them 
was the first settler of Concord, Mass. They were all 
people of character and aspiration. When Frances was 
two years of age, her parents removed to Oberlin, 0., 

— then the most noted educational centre in the West ; 
and again, five years later, to Janesville, Wis., which 
was in a partial wilderness, and there they lived the 
simple and hardy life of pioneers. 

Mr. Willard was a man of intellectual force and cul- 
ture. He became one of the leaders and shapers of the 
political destiny of his adopted State, represented his 
district in the Legislature, and contributed in various 
ways to contemporary progress. Mrs. Willard was a 
woman of the most remarkable character. Her spiritual 



FRANCES E. WILLARD. 263 

strength, was great — born of religion and fervent piety. 
The good old terms are not less, but rather more signifi- 
cant than ours, in that this fervent and faithful and all- 
conquering piety is the power of so relating one's soul 
to God, — of so drawing energy from the infinite store 
of Divine energy, — that a character thus constantly fed 
becomes an illuminating force. " Her mind was always 
occupied with great themes," said her daughter, in after 
years. 

What a suggestive lesson lies in those words ! It is 
not too much to say that the youth or the maiden who 
will resolutely repel and trample upon any tendency to 
unworthy words and thoughts, — the petty, the envious, 
the irritable, the trifling, or the despondent, each of 
which is a sort of moral aqua regia eating away the pure 
gold of character, — and resolutely occupies the mind 
only with great themes, will achieve character, power, 
nobility, happiness, in a word, success, in the truest 
meaning of the term. 

Here, then, we see Frances, a little maid of eight 
years, with a brother and sister, the one a little older, 
the other younger than herself, on this prairie farm, 
afar from the great ceutres of culture and learning ; 
afar from what the world calls " social advantages ; " in 
a home where there was no wealth in material ways, — 
a home of frugal fare, of honest toil, of the free prairie 
air, — but a home where books were valued and were 
read ; where the library, if small in quantity, was choice 
in quality ; where the thought and movements of the 
day were intelligently discussed; where there was a re- 
finement of feeling and exaltation of purpose that Beacon 
street, or Mayfair, or the Faubourg might well revere ; a 
home furnished — not with upholstery and bric-a-brac, 
— but with ideas and ideals. Intelligence, culture, as- 



264 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

piration, and moral earnestness made up the" atmosphere 
of the simple home. Was this a childhood to be com- 
miserated ? Rather was it one of the utmost favor for 
physical development, intellectual growth, and moral un- 
folding. There was no pursuit of false gods in this 
household. 

A COLLEGE STUDENT AND TEACHER. 

At " Forest Home," as the Willards called their cot- 
tage, the children were taught by their mother and a 
governess for some years. When she was seventeen, 
Frances entered a " Female College " in Milwaukee, and 
at the age of twenty she and her sister both entered the 
Northwestern College at Evanston, where she was gradu- 
ated. In her autobiography she says : — 

" Between 1858, when I began, and in 1874, when I 
forever ceased to be a pedagogue, I had thirteen sepa- 
rate seasons of teaching, in eleven separate institutions 
and six separate towns ; my pupils in all numbering 
about two thousand. In my summer vacation at Forest 
Home, 1858, I taught our district school; in my own 
home town of Evanston I taught the public school one 
term; in Harlem, two terms; in Kankakee Academy, 
one term ; in my alma mater, the Northwestern Female 
College, two ; in Pittsburg Female College, three ; in the 
Grove School, Evanston, one year ; in Genesee Wesley an 
Seminary, at Lima, N.Y., three terms; the Evanston 
College for Ladies, two years ; the Woman's College, 
one year; and I was a professor in the Northwestern 
University one year. Nor did I relinquish any of these 
situations save of my own free will, and in every case 
but one I had from the authorities a warm invitation to 
return. This I say very gratefully and gladly." Her 
position as president of the University, which held 



FRANCES E. WILLARD. 265 

radiant promise at the time, was resigned because she 
could not conscientiously cooperate with the trustees in 
a certain matter, and to Frances Willard the law of 
moral uprightness was the very breath of life. Never, 
elsewhere, was an inflexible devotion to conscientious 
convictions combined with such enthralling and entranc- 
ing winsomeness of character. 

SELF-RELIANT, YET TOLERANT. 

She might differ from you, and hold her own way 
uninfluenced by any conceivable argument, but she was 
so full of love, so full of charm and overflowing sweet- 
ness and radiance, that difference was never discord. 
Miss Willard had, indeed, a most wonderful gift for 
" speaking the truth in love." She w r as the faithful 
friend in every relation of social life ; never obtruding 
counsel, but with an exquisite tact that was almost divina- 
tion, ministering spiritually, in an unconscious way that 
was the inevitable result of her love and her wise bene- 
ficence. What words are these, — which are from a 
letter she wrote to Mrs. Moody, after the great evange- 
list, whom she had been assisting, refused to allow her 
again on the platform with him, because of her willing- 
ness to fellowship, as a speaker, with a woman of moral 
power, but unorthodox views, — what ringing words are 
these that she wrote ! — 

" In the sacred communion of work for poor humanity, 
I dare not say, ' You may come/ and ' you must not.' 
' With you I will speak on the same platform, — with 
you I will not.' Rather let the burden of this solemn 
choice rest on those who come ; and whosoever will may 
work with me, if only she brings earnest purpose, devout 
soul, irreproachable moral character." 



266 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 



HER FIRST FOREIGN SOJOURN. 

The two years from 1868 to 1870, Miss Willard passed 
in Europe, sojourning, observing, and studying in Lon- 
don, Paris, Berlin, Rome, and Florence, in an uncon- 
scious period of preparation for her great work, which 
was prepared already for her, and awaited her coming. 
Truly had life begun to bloom for her. The home of 
" plain living and high thinking " that had nurtured her 
childhood fixed the moral earnestness of her character, 
which constantly found expression in deeds. Her edu- 
cation was liberal; her sister, whose life was so early 
transplanted to the world beyond, was commemorated in 
her book, " Nineteen Beautiful Years," — a book which 
made itself so widely felt as to gain for her a multitude 
of friends. To her broad learning and her extended cult- 
ure she had added the discipline of teaching, the experi- 
ence of travel, the study of art and of life. 

To this woman, then, in the opening maturity of her 
power when a little over thirty years of age, came, one 
day, after her return from this first European trip, two 
letters. They were the messengers of fate, indeed, and 
Portia need not have waited Bassanio's choice of the 
caskets with keener feeling than that with which a sym- 
pathetic friend, looking on, would have watched Frances 
Willard's choice in the decision between two courses of 
life represented by those two letters. 

It was the moment of destiny, though she knew it 
not. From the point where she stood, two paths opened, 
and each entreated her to enter. The one was adorned 
with honors and emoluments; the other was bare and 
forbidding. The one apparently led through flowers and 
sunshine ; the other showed but stony ground for bleed- 
ing feet to toil upward. The one offered her a salaried 



FRANCES E. WILL ART). 267 

educational position in a leading college where the con- 
genial atmosphere of scholarship and literature allured 
her. The other offered her the presidency of the re- 
cently formed Women's Christian Temperance Union of 
Chicago — an organization then poor and obscure, the 
position unsalaried and unattended by worldly honors or 
rewards. The one offered her a life that would be, to 
some extent, ministered to. The other offered her only 
a place to minister. 

Nor was the attraction of the former wholly a selfish 
one. Her father had died ; her mother, whom she idol- 
ized, was mostly dependent on her exertions for support. 
Under such conditions, the hour of destiny came, and 
offered her the choice of a congenial life with compara- 
tive financial ease, or of a life of infinite hardship, and 
one that could hold no promise or prophecy of earthly 
reward. Which would Frances Willard choose ? 



TWO MORAL HEROINES. 

It was a crisis with her, and one especially weighted 
by the thought of her mother. But that mother was a 
moral heroine. She had not reared her daughter to seek 
ease or indulgence, but to seek service. 

She had taught her the great lesson that we do not 
come into this world to be ministered unto, but to min- 
ister. The angel of the Lord was with her and His 
glory encompassed her round about, and her word, her 
life, was then and there consecrated to that great work 
which began as a grain of mustard seed, and which has 
grown to the healing of the nations. 

Nothing in all romance is more deeply engaging than 
Frances E. Willard's autobiographical record of those 
opening days when, in Chicago, she entered upon the 



268 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

work for whose cause she had come into this world. We 
find her saying : 

" Many a time I went without my noonday lunch down- 
town because I had no money with which to buy, and 
many a mile did I walk because I ha,d not the prerequi- 
site nickel for street-car riding. . . . 

" But for several months I went on this way, and my 
life never had a happier season. For the first time I 
knew the gnawings of hunger, whereat I used to smile 
and say to myself, as I elbowed my way among the 
wretched people to whom I was sent, i I 'm a better 
friend than you dream ; I know more about you than 
you think, for, bless God, I 'm hungry too.' " 

Miss Willard did not at first, nor, indeed, until after 
three years of service, accept the position of president 
of the Women's Christian Temperance Union. In 1879, 
however, she yielded to the constant and increasing de- 
mands, and accepted, with all her holy earnestness, the 
work " for God, and home, and native land." 

HER MARRIAGE ENGAGEMENT AND REAL ROMANCE. 

It is not indiscreet to say here that, in her early girl- 
hood, Frances E. Willard was the promised wife of a 
gentleman who is now a prominent Bishop of the Metho- 
dist Episcopal Church. To this, in her autobiography, 
she thus alludes : 

" In 1861-1862, for three-quarters of a year, I wore a ring 
and acknowledged an allegiance based on the supposition 
that an intellectual comradeship was sure to deepen into 
unity of heart. How grieved I was over the discovery of 
my mistake, my journals of that epoch could reveal. Of 
the real romance of my life, unguessed save by a trio 
of close friends, these pages may not tell. When I have 
passed from sight I would be glad to have it known, for 



FRANCES E. WILLARD. 269 

I believe it might contribute to a better understanding 
between good men and women. For the rest, I have been 
blessed with friendships rich, rare, and varied, all lying 
within the temperate zone of a great heart's geography, 
which has been called ' cold ' simply because no Stanley 
has explored its tropic climate, and set down as ' wholly 
island' because no adventurous Balboa has viewed its 
wide Pacific sea." 

This allusion explains much to those who read between 
the lines. 

Miss Willard's work as the chief executive of that great 
organization, the Women's Christian Temperance Union, 
condensed, within a period of nineteen years, experiences 
and achievements that might almost have occupied ten 
times that number. Indeed, one impressive feature of 
her life was its intensity and rapidity. Of its swiftly 
passing events, she herself has said : 

" The wise ones tell us that we change utterly once 
in every seven years, so that, from the vantage-ground of 
life's serene meridian, I have looked back upon the seven 
persons whom I know most about: the welcome child, 
the romping girl, the happy student, the roving teacher, 
the tireless traveller, the temperance organizer, and lastly, 
the politician and advocate of women's rights. Since all 
of these are sweetly dead and gone, why should not their 
biographies and epitaphs, perchance their eulogies, be 
written by their best-informed and most indulgent 
critic ? " 

HER INTENSE SPIRITUAL VITALITY. 

She had the intense spiritual vitality that swiftly trans- 
mutes circumstances and elements into accomplished re- 
sults ; she achieved very rapidly, and her nineteen years' 
presidency of the Women's Christian Temperance Union 



270 TALKS WITS GREAT WORKERS. 

comprehends a vast and varied work in education, social 
training, industrial and political ethics, and the develop- 
ment of a higher atmosphere of household love and aspi- 
ration in the homes of America, as well as the specific 
prohibition of intemperance for which it stood. 

Frances Willard was a woman who touched life at all 
points. She had the widest range of interests, the most 
all-embracing sympathy, and that charity which not only 
thinketh no evil, but which was so creative in its kind- 
ling love as fairly to transform evil into good. She was 
really more alive than most people, with the larger life 
of the spirit. Her tact in organization was wonderful. 
She had excellent judgment in selecting leaders and offi- 
cers, and securing for them the most favorable conditions. 
To praise them, to hear them praised, was her delight. 
She had a felicitous way of always placing each person at 
his best. She was overflowing with generous enthusi- 
asms. 

For many years past, her home has been in Evanston, 
near Chicago, in " Rest Cottage," as the house was well 
called. Some six years ago her mother passed on to the 
life beyond, and this grief, combined with the great ex- 
haustion of her work, made inroads upon her health. 
Lady Henry Somerset, her best beloved and nearest 
friend, induced her to go to England, where, for some 
months, she enjoyed, not leisure, but a change of activ- 
ities. 

Intellectually, she was the peer of the greatest men 
and women of her time, and in London she received a 
recognition beyond that ever accorded to any other Amer- 
ican woman, save Mrs. Stowe, who visited London just 
after the publication of " Uncle Tom's Cabin," " bearing 
her blushing honors full upon her." 



FRANCES E. WILLARD. 271 



HER FRIENDSHIP WITH LADY SOMERSET. 

No sketch of the life and work of Miss Willard could 
be in the least adequate which did not recognize the de- 
termining invigoration and joy brought into her life by 
that one perfect and ideally beautiful friendship be- 
tween herself and Isabel, Lady Henry Somerset. It is 
not merely notable because the peeress of the court of 
St. James is " the daughter of a hundred earls," but be- 
cause she is so great in gifts, in culture, in spiritual su- 
premacy, that her rich and varied qualities of mind and 
heart far transcend rank and social prestige. That such 
a woman loved and honored Miss Willard as her closest 
chosen friend is the mutual glory, as it was the mutual 
happiness, of both. Lady Henry's companionship has 
been the crowning personal joy of Frances Willard's life. 
Here was perfect sympathy of comprehension, a mutual 
response in high thought and noble effort, and a perfect 
joy of tender companionship. 

HER MENTAL HOSPITALITY. 

Few women have ever revealed such wide mental hos- 
pitality as has Miss Willard. Her annual address before 
the vast convention over which she presided with such 
faultless grace, such serene dignity, such unsurpassed 
power, was always a marvellous compendium of allusions 
to the great events of the past year. She caught — no 
one knew how, in her busy life — the latest note of prog- 
ress in political activities, scientific experiment, Edi- 
son's and Tesla's wonderful discoveries in the realm of 
higher potencies, the results of polar and other expedi- 
tions, the latest development in thought and scholarly 
research. Nothing was foreign to her. 

The untiring and unfailing energy that characterized 



272 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKUPS. 

Frances Willard was simply due to her preponderating 
spiritual life. She was a woman of delicate physique, 
with her slender figure, her Madonna-like face, fair as a 
lily, framed in golden-brown hair and lighted by the blue 
eyes, shining as if with radiant thought. But her capac- 
ity for work was unlimited. During long days of travel, 
letters, notes, data for lectures, articles for newspapers, 
would fly from her hand, and a lecture engagement, per- 
haps, await her at the close of the day's journey. She 
had an organization peculiarly receptive to the Divine 
energy, or such ceaseless activity would have been impos- 
sible. 

THE BEAUTY OF HER CLOSING HOURS. 

Her closing hours on earth were full of beauty and up- 
lifting. She realized that she stood on the threshold of 
the life beyond, and her last words were : " It will be 
beautiful to be with God." She has entered on a higher 
order of energy and achievement. The heavenly vision 
was early revealed to her, and never did she falter in 
her obedience. " She was a character more perfectly 
human, more exquisitely divine, than any other I have 
ever met," says Lady Henry Somerset. 

Her memory will be to us all an inspiration to choose 
the higher rather than the lower life ; it will impress 
upon us all the great truth that sweetness and sincerity 
and sympathy are elements of strength, and that the 
constant effort to lift up the heart to the Divine is the 
only measure of a true success. 



XLV. 
THE ELEVATION OF WOMANHOOD. 



" Is there no way to put an end to me ? " 
It was a very small girl who stood before her mother, 
asking this strange question. She had been reading the 
Bible, and the passage which chained her attention, and 
roused all her indignation, was the declaration, " Thy de- 
sire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee." 
She was a very thoughtful child, and in her veins was 
splendid fighting blood, her great-grandfather having 
been killed in the French and Indian war, and her grand- 
father serving in the War of the Revolution. It did not 
seem to her that a world wherein one sex is in subjection 
to the other, and that by Divine command, is a place in 
which she cared to remain. Her mother tried to convince 
her that it is a woman's duty to submit, but found the 
attempt utterly futile. The indignant child soon after- 
wards determined to learn Greek and Hebrew, that she 
might decide for herself whether this and other disturb- 
ing texts are correctly translated. It was with this re- 
solve that Lucy Stone began her career as one of woman's 
most effective champions. 

She was born about three miles from West Brookfield, 
Mass., Aug. 13, 1818 ; next to the youngest of a family 
of nine. Her father, just and stern, but seldom tender, 
had imbibed freely the uncontradicted idea of his time, 

273 



274 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

that a man should be absolute ruler over his own house- 
hold. Women were the servants, the housekeepers, the 
child-bearers, with no special intellectual needs or abil- 
ities. If the women of that day did not entirely sub- 
scribe to this doctrine, no one was the wiser for their 
mental expostulations. Bred by such parents and nur- 
tured in such soil, how there came to be born in the soul 
of this woman-child, Lucy, such hot protests against ex- 
isting conditions, such high resolves for future action, is 
a mystery which must remain unsolved. 

IS THE CHILD CRAZY ? 

Francis Stone furnished means for sending his sons to 
college, and was told by his wife that his daughter also 
desired a college education. " Is the child crazy ? " de- 
manded the astonished man ; and he put the matter by 
once for all, Lucy nevertheless resolved to go to col- 
lege. That which her father refused, nature and her 
own labor should furnish. 

No one thought particularly about this farmer's daugh- 
ter who wandered through the pastures and over the 
hills, picking berries and gathering chestnuts for mar- 
ket. She was a simply clad little maid, engaged in an 
ordinary task ; or so it seemed to those who chanced to 
pass her by and to note her occupation ; but into that 
berry-pail and chestnut-basket was dropped the future of 
womankind. Little Lucy Stone was picking berries and 
gathering chestnuts for the world. If the young girl's 
odd sayings and strange questions were known at all, 
they were ascribed to ignorance of customs and the pre- 
sumption of youth, and were passed by as of no moment. 

Far and near she sought the berries and discovered 
the chestnuts, which commodities were exchanged for 
books. During all hours which she could snatch from 



LUCY STONE. 275 

household tasks, and in the evening, she studied till the 
hours grew small and the candle short. The berry- 
picker became the meagrely-paid teacher, — teaching be- 
ing one of the half dozen occupations then open to 
women, — and at twenty-five Lucy Stone had earned 
enough to enable her to start for college. 

SHE SLEPT ON DECK. 

On her way to Oberlin — the only college at that time 
where negroes and women were admitted as students — 
the maiden, hoarding with most rigid economy the small 
sum she had saved, slept, with a number of others as 
poor as herself, on the deck of a steamer on Lake Erie, 
with a grain-sack for a pillow, amid the cattle and other 
freight. 

She worked for three cents an hour, boarded herself 
on fifty cents a week, did her own laundry work, taught 
in a preparatory school, and was still among the best 
prepared and most advanced pupils of her classes. 

At graduation our heroine refused to prepare an essay 
because she would not be allowed to read it herself, but 
be obliged to depend on some male student. After this 
she began at once — in spite of the remonstrances of 
those who declared it unscriptural and unwomanly — to 
speak for enslaved women and the manacled negroes. 
No longer could she be regarded as commonplace. Her 
trials were severe. The world's prejudice, dulness, and 
indifference forbade all thought of speedy conquest. 

HER FIRST SUFFRAGE LECTURE. 

She gave her first woman-suffrage lecture from the 
pulpit of her brother's church in Gardner, Mass., in 
1847 ; and soon afterwards was engaged to speak for the 
Anti-Slavery Society. By the clearest logic, and by the 



276 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

tenderest persuasiveness ever employed by mortal, and 
by a voice so beautiful that to once hear it was to re- 
member it always, and by the curiosity of thousands who 
had never heard a woman speaker, — she secured im- 
mense audiences. People went to see a huge-figured, 
brazen-faced Amazon, and were confronted by a wee 
woman who looked and spoke like an angel, albeit an 
angel charged with a very important and imperative mes- 
sage which was to be delivered at all hazards. 

" I remember well the first time I ever saw her," de- 
clares Mary A. Livermore. " She wore a bloomer suit, 
and was the sweetest and prettiest thing I ever saw." 

She was engaged to lecture on woman's rights on 
week-day nights, and on anti-slavery on Sunday even- 
ings. She arranged her own meetings, fastened up her 
own handbills, and took up her own collections. 

A Maiden minister who had been requested to an- 
nounce one of her meetings did so in these words : " I 
am asked to give notice that a hen will attempt to crow 
like a cock in the town hall at five o'clock to-morrow 
night. Those who like such music will of course at- 
tend." 

SHE WAS EVERYWHERE PERSECUTED. 

One cold night when she was lecturing in a Connecti- 
cut church a pane of glass was removed from the win- 
dow, and through a hose she was deluged with cold 
water. Wrapping a shawl about her, she continued her 
speech. At an open-air meeting on Cape Cod, where 
there were a number of speakers, the demonstrations of 
the mob were so threatening that a number slipped away 
from the platform, leaving Lucy Stone and Stephen 
Foster to face the rioters alone. 

u You better go; they are coming," she said to Foster. 



LUCY STONE. 211 

"But who will take care of you? " was the answer. 

At that moment the ringleader of the mob, a burly fel- 
low with a club, sprang upon the platform. With no 
sign of fear in her face or in her calm, sweet tones, the 
lecturer said, " This gentleman will take care of me." 

And verily the "gentleman" did. Tucking her arm 
under his, and warding off the crowd with his disengaged 
hand, he piloted her to a place of safety and stood by 
her, weapon in hand, while — mounted on a stump — she 
addressed the mob on the enormity of their conduct, and 
so wrought upon them that they took up a collection of 
twenty dollars to pay Foster for his coat, which had been 
ruined in their vigorous treatment of him. 

At many meetings where there were several speakers, 
no one could get a hearing but Lucy Stone. In New 
York the rioters were so determined that the speakers 
should not be heard that William Henry Channing pro- 
posed that the meeting be adjourned ; but Lucretia Mott, 
who was presiding, refused to adjourn until the hour set 
for the close of the meeting. Howls and cat-calls 
drowned the voices of speaker after speaker, but when 
Lucy Stone rose, silence and good order prevailed. 
When the next speaker began the uproar recommenced, 
and continued to the end. After the adjournment Lucy 
Stone took some of the ringleaders indignantly to task 
for their behavior. 

"Oh, well," was the reply, "you needn't complain of 
us ; we kept still for you." 

SHE MARRIED, BUT KEPT HER MAIDEN NAME. 

In 1855 Lucy Stone married Henry Blackwell, a young 
Cincinnati merchant, to whom justice and progress were 
as dear as unto herself, and who has always labored for 
woman's cause. 



278 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

The two at the time of their marriage published a 
joint protest against the law which at that time gave the 
husband entire control of his wife's person, property, 
and earnings. The taking of her husband's name in 
marriage seemed to Lucy Stone a sign of vassalage to 
him, and as several prominent clergymen assured her 
that there was no law requiring it, she retained her own 
name with her husband's entire approval. 

Together the two continued their bombardment against 
the strongholds of injustice ; fighting against terrible 
odds, with few weapons, but gaining victory after vic- 
tory, till hundreds of wrongs were exposed and scores of 
laws changed, till hundreds of occupations were made 
possible to women, till the movement to grant women 
equal suffrage and equal opportunities with man was 
given a momentum which must send it on till its work is 
perfectly accomplished. 

You have heard again and again of this heroine's later 
life; of the tender motherhood and sweet home life in 
the pleasant Dorchester house by the sea, into which 
were welcomed all who were without homes or in need 
of comfort or counsel; of the hard-earned honors and 
the expressions of love and gratitude showered at last 
on one who had ever sought usefulness rather than 
greatness. 



XLVI. 

THE BBIGHT SIDE OF LITERAEY LIFE, 
AND POINTS FOR YOUNG WRITERS. 



Born and reared iu Wisconsin, Ella Wheeler Wilcox, 
although a resident of New York, is still faithful to the 
ideals and aspirations of the young and vigorous Western 
State in which she first saw the light. She began writ- 
ing at an early age, and still has in her possession child- 
ish verses, composed when she was only eight years 
old. 

She was, however, far from any literary centre ; she 
had no one upon whom she might rely for advice as to 
her methods ; and she had no influential friends, for her 
family was not a wealthy one. The usual difficulties, so 
familiar to all beginners, met her at every step ; discour- 
agements were endured day after day and year after 
year. After a while she began writing for various peri- 
odicals. Her first poems appeared in the "New York 
Mercury," the " Waverly Magazine," and Leslie's pub- 
lications. It was from the publishing-house of Frank 
Leslie she received her first check. Her income from 
literary work was very small, and recognition came quite 
slowly. But courage, and patience, and fortitude finally 
won the day. 



279 



280 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 



HER MOST FAMOUS POEMS. 

One of her most famous poems, beginning, " Laugh, 
and the world laughs with you," was written about Feb- 
ruary, 1883, at Madison, Wis. She had talked with a 
friend who had been bereaved by death in her house- 
hold ; later, while dressing for an inaugural ball, given 
in honor of the governor of Wisconsin, she was startled 
to think how soon the mind turns from stories of sorrow 
to scenes of gayety. Thus she formed the idea of this 
famous poem. It originally appeared in the " New York 
Sun," and the author received five dollars for it. Subse- 
quently an attempt was made to pirate the verses as the 
composition of another; but the effort was, happily, a 
complete failure. The poem embodying the idea, — 

" A question is never settled 
Until it is settled right," 

with which W. J. Bryan concludes his book, was written 
by her after hearing a gentleman make a remark in those 
words at the conclusion of a heated argument on the 
single-tax question. The gentleman was afterwards told 
that Lincoln had made use of this exact expression 
years ago. But neither the gentleman in question, nor 
Mrs. Wilcox herself, had ever heard the expression 
before. 

" The Two Glasses," one of her brightest poems, was 
written at the age of eighteen. Although this was a 
" temperance poem," she had never, up to that time, seen 
a glass of beer or wine. This poem, too, was pirated by 
one who pretended to be the author. 

" The Birth of the Opal " was suggested by Herman 
Marcus, the Broadway jeweller, who advanced the idea 



ELLA WHEELER WILCOX. 281 

of the opal being the child of the sunlight and moon- 
light. 

" Wherever You Are " originally appeared in " Leslie's 
Popular Monthly." A young man who had served a 
term in Auburn prison read this poem, and it became 
the means of his reformation. Mrs. Wilcox lent him a 
helping hand, and he is to-day a hard-working, honest, 
worthy man. 

She regards the poems, "High Noon," "To an As- 
trologer," and "My Creed," as probably her best efforts. 
It will thus be noted that she does not prefer the more 
fervid poems of passion, written in her early youth. 

Mrs. Wilcox lives in New York City from November 
to May, and in her cottage at Short Beach, Conn., dur- 
ing the rest of the year. Her husband, R. M. Wilcox, 
is a clear-headed business man, of polished manners, 
kind and considerate to all whom he meets, — one who, 
in short, is deservedly popular with all the friends of the 
happy couple. The summer house at Short Beach is 
especially charming. It is in full view of the sea, with 
a fine beach in front, and a splendid sweep of country at 
the rear. 

LITERARY METHODS. 

As to literary methods, Mrs. Wilcox has few sugges- 
tions to make, except to recommend hard work, con- 
scientiously performed. She is untiring in her own 
efforts at rewriting, revising, and polishing her produc- 
tions; and cannot rest until every appearance of crude- 
ness and carelessness is effaced. Her manuscripts are 
always neat, always carefully considered, and never pre- 
pared in undue haste. She believes that no writer can 
succeed who is a pessimist. She is an optimist of the 
most pronounced type, and believes that all poems should 



282 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

be helpful, not hurtful ; full of hope, and not of despair ; 
bright with faith, and not clouded by doubt. 

POINTS FOR WRITERS. 

" What is your view of the first things to be done by 
a young author ? " she was asked. ^ 

" 1. The first thing is to find out your motive in 
choosing a literary* career. If you write as the young 
bird sings, you need no advice from me, for your thoughts 
will find their way as natural springs force their way 
through rocks, and nothing can hinder you. But if you 
have merely a well-defined literary ability and taste, you 
should consider carefully before undertaking the difficult 
task of authorship. 

" 2. An author should be able to instruct, entertain, 
guide, or amuse his readers. Otherwise he has no right 
to expect their attention, time, or money. If it is merely 
a question of money it would be wise to wait until you 
have a comfortable income, sufficient to maintain life 
during the first ten years of literary pursuits. Save in 
rare cases of remarkable genius, literature requires ten 
years' apprenticeship, at least, before yielding a support. 
But be sure that you help — not harm — ■ humanity. To 
the author, of all men, belongs the motto, 'Noblesse 
oblige.' 9 

" 3. Unless you are so absorbed in your work that you 
utterly forget the existence of critics or reviewers, you 
have no right to ,call yourself a genius. Talent thinks 
with fear and fawning of critics ; genius does not remem- 
ber that they exist. One bows at the shrine of existing 
public opinion, which is narrow with prejudice. The 
other bows at the shrine of art, which is as broad as the 
universe. 

" 4. Do not attempt to adopt the style of any one else. 



ELLA WHEELER WILCOX. 283 

Unless you feel that you can be yourself do not try to be 
anybody. A poor original is better than a good imita- 
tion, in literature, if not in other things." 

" 5. How do you think a young author should proceed 
to obtain recognition ? M 
A "In regard to the practical methods of getting one's 
work before the public, I beg you not to send it to some 
well-known author, asking him or Jpgv to 'read, criticise, 
correct, and find a publisher for you.' If such a thought 
has entered your head, remember that it has entered the 
heads of five hundred other amateurs, and the poor 
author is crushed under an avalanche of badly-written 
manuscripts, not one of which he has time to read. 

"6. Expect no aid from influential friends in any 
way. The more you depend on yourself ) the sooner will 
you succeed. 

11 It is absolute nonsense to talk about ' influence ' with 
editors or publishers. No editor will accept what he 
does not want, through the advice of any author, how- 
ever famous. No one ever achieved even passing fame 
or success in literature through influence or ' friends at 
court.' An editor might be influenced to accept one 
article, but he would never give permanent patronage 
through any influence, however strong. 

" 7. Do not be easily discouraged. 7" have often had 
an article refused by six editors and accepted by the sev- 
enth. An especially unfortunate manuscript of mine 
was once rejected by eight periodicals, and I was about to 
consign it to oblivion, when, as a last venture, I sent it 
to the ninth. A check of seventy-five dollars came to me 
by return mail, with an extremely complimentary letter 
from the editor, requesting more articles of a similar 
kind." 



XLVII. 

SHE LOVES HER WORK. 
MRS. BURTON HARRISON. 



Mrs. Burton Harrison, the gifted American author, 
is a charming woman socially ; unaffected in manner and 
easy and graceful in conversation. When I called I was 
ushered into her library, and was entertained in the same 
delightful way in which her books are written. Indeed, 
she told me that she writes without effort. 

It was a very pretty story she told me of her childhood 
days in Old Virginia, where she spent the greater part of 
her time in reading standard works and in dreams of 
authorship. " Even in my youngest years," she said, " I 
used to make up fairy tales. Later, I put my thoughts 
on paper." 

"And what was your first experience in a literary 
way ? " I asked. 

" When I was about seventeen years old I sent a love 
story to the ' Atlantic Monthly.' It was lurid and mel- 
ancholy," she said with a smile. " It was returned in 
due course of time, and across its face was written, in 
very bright ink, ' This is far better than the average, and 
ought to be read through,' from which I inferred that 
only the first page had been read. But I was encouraged 
even by that. 

284 



MRS. BURTON HARRISON. 285 



HER FIRST NOVEL. 

" My next attempt was a novel, which I called ' Skir- 
mishing.' It was destroyed in a fire, for which I have 
ever since felt grateful." 

Miss Constance Cary (her maiden name) next went 
abroad with her widowed mother, and spent some years 
in travelling and in completing her education. 

" It was not until after I returned to America," she 
said, " and was married to Mr. Harrison, that I was 
again bold enough to take up my pen. I wrote an arti- 
cle which I called ' A Little Centennial Lady.' It was 
published in 'Scribner's Magazine,' and had so favorable 
a reception that I was encouraged to write 6 Golden Bod,' 
a story of Mount Desert, which appeared later in ' Har- 
per's Magazine.' 

BOOKS SHE ENJOYED. 

"My books that I have enjoyed most, if a writer may 
enjoy her own work, have not been those dealing with 
New York social life, but my tales of the South. Charles 
A. Dana, of the 'New York Sun,' was unconsciously re- 
sponsible for my 'Old Dominion.' He gave me the 
agreeable task of editing the ' Monticello Letters,' and 
from them I gleaned a story which outlined my ' Old 
Dominion.' But the editors cry for stories of New York 
social life, to gratify the popular demand." 

Mrs. Harrison's books are so well known that it is un- 
necessary to dwell on their acknowledged merit, vivid- 
ness, and truthfulness to life. To the general public 
there is something fascinating about a New York social 
story, dealing with the millionaire's club life, woman's 
teas, and love's broken lances. Besides the general de- 
sire for a good social novel, there is a morbid, unsatiated 



286 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

desire to pry into the doings, customs, and manners of 
the rich. It is with agreeable expectations that one 
picks up one of Mrs. Harrison's books ; it is with the 
certainty that you will be entertained. 

HER CHARACTERS ARE FROM LIFE. 

On a former call she told me that her New York 
stories are built on her observations, and that the char- 
acters are so changed as not to antagonize her friends, 
for she enters the best society through her family ties 
and her well-earned prestige. 

" It is very peculiar," she continued, " how, in writing 
a story, the characters govern me, not I the characters. 
I may have the outline and ending of a book in my mind, 
but the characters take everything into their hands and 
walk independently through the pages. I have always 
found it best to obey. The ending of ' Anglo-Maniacs,' 
which caused so much adverse criticism, was not as I had 
planned. I was helpless under the caprices of the char- 
acters. At first I was displeased at the ending, but now, 
looking back upon it, I am well satisfied." 

" Then the characters, to you, become real ; and you are 
entirely under their spell ? " 

IN LOVE WITH HER WORK. 

" Yes, if I did not believe in them, I would be unable 
to write ; for the time being, I am living and observing 
a dozen lives. There is much satisfaction in doing so 
correctly. I am in love with my work, and am a hard 
worker. 

" All the time I am turning little romances over in my 
mind, and when I can no longer keep my pen from paper, 
I sit down and write." 



MRS. BURTON HARRISON. 287 

Many amusing little instances touching upon her work 
have come to her attention. 

"One morning," said Mrs. Harrison, "after roy hus- 
band had successfully defended a client the man grasped 
his hand very warmly, and to my husband's amazement, 
said, ' Well, Mr. Harrison, I want to tell you what we 
think of your wife. She 's the finest writer in the Eng- 
lish language, that 's what my daughter says. She says 
there are no books like hers.' 

" ' Which one does she like most ? ' asked my husband, 
immensely pleased. 

"'Well,' he replied, 'I can't just answer that, but I 
think it's "Your Eyre." ' 

"Once I received a rather startling letter from a 
Western ranchman. It said, ' Your book has been going 
the rounds, but it always comes back, and I have threat- 
ened to put a bullet in the hide of the man who does not 
return it.' I was greatly pleased with that letter. 

" The most gratifying letter I ever received was from 
a man in a prison. He begged to be supplied with all I 
had written." 

Mrs Harrison has made many close friends through 
her books. Once she was with a party of friends in a 
Madrid gallery. Her name was mentioned, and a Spanish 
lady came forward, and introduced herself, at the same 
time expressing her admiration for her. 

" She is now one of my dearest friends," concluded 
Mrs. Harrison. 

Just then a colored man appeared in the library, bear- 
ing a tray, — for afternoon tea, — sol arose, although 
she asked me to have a cup of tea. Fearing that I might 
be intruding, I retired, expressing my wish that she 
might quickly recover from the overwork which was just 
then a hindrance to her writing new stories. 



XL VIII. 

THE MILL-GIRL POET. 

HER FRIENDSHIP WITH WHITTIER. 



And this is the little mill-girl of Lowell, who doffed the bobbins : 
Lucy Larcom ! Her name has always seemed to me one of those 
born and baptismal appellations which hold a significance and a 
prophecy. "Lucy," — the light; "Larcom," — the song-bird 
haunt ; the combe, or valley-field of larks. It is her birth name, and 
her heart- and-soul name. I fancy it needs not to be much changed 
into her heaven-name. I " spect," like Topsy, that the name and 
she must have u growed " together. — Mrs. A. D. T. Whitney. 

Lucy was the youngest of the Larcoin family of eight 
girls, who, when she was ten years old, removed with 
their widowed mother from Beverly to Lowell, where 
much needed work was provided by the mills. After 
three years as home-helper, Lucy became a factory 
" doffer," whose work it was to remove empty bobbins 
and replace them by full ones. Her literary life had 
been for some time lived, not unto the world, but unto 
herself. When seven years old she had written a manu- 
script volume of little stories and poems, which she illus- 
trated with crude water-colors. After enjoying it for 
some time, she took it to the attic, solemnly tore it into 
bits, and consigned it to the rats. 

Now her "factory" thoughts, which the monotony of 
her work left much at leisure, wove many a fanciful 

288 



LUCY LARCOM. 289 

story, and rhymed many a song. Long tasks called the 
workers abroad before day, but in the stream of humanity 
pouring forth to meet the morning freshness, in the 
beauty of thousands of lights in huge mills, in the near- 
hanging stars of the dawn, — in all these the slight girl 
with the large insight saw the strength and the poetry of 
real life ; and no one was ever more responsive to life in 
all its shadings than this doffer poet. On her homeward 
way she saw and communed with the summer sunsets, 
gathered wayside flowers, or translated the different bird- 
songs, and bewailed her lot not at all. 

EVENINGS WITH THE MILL-GIRLS. 

Then came the evenings when, around a long table, 
the girls sewed and read and talked, never dreaming that 
the silent, studious little one, who seemed the least 
among them, was to be the greatest of them all. 

"While yet a child," Miss Larcom says, " I used to 
consider it special good fortune that my home was at 
Lowell. There was a frank friendliness and sincerity in 
the social atmosphere that wrought upon me uncon- 
sciously, and made the place pleasant to live in. People 
moved about their every-day duties with purpose and 
zest, and were generally interested in one another ; while 
in the towns on the seaboard it was sometimes as if every 
man's house was his castle in almost a feudal sense, 
where the family shut themselves in against intruders." 

The girls working in the Lowell mills at that period 
gave one of the finest examples ever seen of " plain living 
and high thinking." One of those girls wore out Watts' 
" Improvement of the Mind " by carrying it about in her 
working-dress pocket; others studied German in the 
evening, though their hours of labor were from daylight 
till half -past seven at night ; they organized Improve- 



290 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

ment Circles, and published a magazine or two. They 
were high-minded and refined, not afraid of drudgery, 
but determined to make their way to something beyond 
it. Many of them loved beauty and appreciated the 
sweep of the fair, blue Merrimac under the factory win- 
dows. In their homes, with all their frugality, the at- 
mosphere was fragrant with peace and integrity. 

In the " Offering," the paper of the Lowell mill girls' 
club, appeared Lucy's " Idyls of Work," which was a re- 
telling and resetting forth of the existence about her, and 
" Wild Roses of Cape Ann," full " of picture and perfume 
and legend that could only have been seen and breathed 
and learned where the forests lean down to listen to the 
ocean, and the waters send up their song and strength to 
the hills and trees." It was among her factory mates 
that Lucy Larcorn so strongly began that work of minis- 
tration which she never afterwards laid down. 

THE DIGNITY OF LABOR. 

From the drudgery of work to its dignity and beauty 
and beneficence, she lifted the mill-girl mind. From out- 
side unloveliness and prosaic monotony she led the 
thoughts of her girl companions into regions which re- 
freshed their minds and added to their mental posses- 
sions. 

One evening there appeared at one of the club-meetings 
of the mill-girls a kind-faced, big-browed man who spoke 
with the " thee and thou " of the Quakers — John Green- 
leaf Whittier, who was then in Lowell editing a Free- 
Soil journal. He showed his interest in Lucy Larcorn 
by criticising some of her contributions to the paper 
which had been read. From that day the two poets — 
one a mature man, the other a mere child — were fast 
friends. Lucy was afterwards introduced to Elizabeth, 



LUCY LARCOM. 291 

Whittier's sister, and between the three loving, minister- 
ing, tender souls, there sprang up a friendship, out of 
which grew those beautiful compilations, " Child-life " 
and " Songs of Three Centuries." 

POETIC FIRSTLINGS. 

" This poem was produced under the inspiration of the 
nurses," announced the Lowell " Casket," in which ap- 
peared certain of Miss Larcom's verses; a misprint, of 
course, for muses, but those who knew its author to be 
only about twelve years old did not quarrel with the 
statement. One of her early compositions which was 
sent to the " Atlantic," while the poet Lowell was its 
editor, was, no name being signed to the production, 
ascribed to Emerson. During all this time of literary 
achievement the poet was the mill-girl still. She had 
been steadily promoted. After bobbin-doffing, her next 
work was tending a spinning-frame. Later she was em- 
ployed in the cloth- room, and finally as bookkeeper. Al- 
ways on her frame or desk lay an open book, something 
on mathematics, grammar, English or German literature, 
from which statements or sentences could be snatched, to 
be conned over while her hands attended to their me- 
chanical tasks. 

THE PRAIRIE SCHOOL-HOUSE. 

It was when she was twenty that Miss Larcom left the 
mill to accompany her sister to the West and become a 
teacher. 

The school-house was a log building standing amid the 
wide, monotonous stretches of an Illinois prairie, whose 
billowy grass reminded the homesick teacher of the ocean 
off her own New England coast. The central structure 
of the house was an enormous chimney. One day when, 



292 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

for some misdemeanor, a girl had been directed by Miss 
Larcom to " stand in the chimney," she climbed out 
through the ample aperture, and treated herself to the 
freedom of " all-out-doors." The pupils, ranging from 
infants to young men and women, came from three coun- 
ties. The teacher walked two miles to school. 

She was one of the minister's family. Her older 
sister, Emeline, " half-mother, half -mate," had married a 
pioneer Western clergyman. Lucy for a time accompa- 
nied the two in their wanderings, becoming a teacher in 
several Western hamlets. The school taught in the big- 
chimneyed house was under the auspices of a district 
committee, who required its would-be teachers to hold up 
their hands and swear that they were able to instruct in 
arithmetic, geography, writing, and spelling. "Forty 
dollars is a lot o' money to pay a young woman for three 
months' teaching — she oughter know considerable," 
declared an official to whom Miss Larcom's brother-in-law 
had gone to collect her salary. 

During these Western wanderings she at length found 
herself in the vicinity of Monticello Female Seminary. 
She entered the institution as a pupil, spending three years 
in the full course of study, also taking charge of the 
preparatory department during the last two years. But 
her heart was all in New England, and it was with glad 
footsteps that she returned to 

BEVERLY, 

whose every rock was dear to her, and the song of whose 
waters was, to her interpreting soul and responsive 
heart, an inspiration. 

Here for a year or two she taught a class of young 
ladies. Her next position was in Wheaton Seminary, at 
Norton, where she remained six years, teaching rhetoric, 



LUCY LARCOM. 293 

English literature, composition, mental and moral sci- 
ence, and botany. It was in 1865 that she became as- 
sistant editor, and a year later, leading editor, of " Our 
Young Folks," a Boston magazine. Her writings were 
everywhere recognized ; the poem " Hannah Binding 
Shoes" being, probably, the best known of all. 

To her home in Beverly journeyed many who needed 
encouragement, sympathy, and comfort ; for Lucy Lar- 
com not only had, like Margaret Fuller, " a genius for 
friendship, but a genius for mothering. Hers was the 
gospel of love made manifest. Bravely, adequately, and 
gracefully she wrought ; but those who knew her best 
will best remember and revere her for what she was 
rather than for what she wrote. In her own words: 

u Woman can climb no higher than womanhood, 
Whatever be her title." 



XLIX. 

JULIAN HAWTHORNE TO LITERARY 
ASPIRANTS. 



" My father strongly advised me against a literary 
career," said Julian Hawthorne, when I asked for his 
advice to young writers. " He also pointed out its hard 
work and small remuneration. I well knew that any- 
thing I might write would, as a matter of course, be 
compared with his work, so I became an engineer. My 
duties included some work on a canal located on a mos- 
quito belt, where the climate, too, was unsuited to myself 
and family. I gave it up, and took up my pen simply to 
try my hand on a story. I sold it to ' Harper's Maga- 
zine ' for such a large sum of money that I decided then 
to write for a living. My life has since been fraught 
with the hardest kind of work. 

" The idea that good literary work is done by the 
talented without great labor — in preparation, at least — 
has been exploded time and again. Every one of our 
great authors has succeeded only after severe application, 
wrought in a spirit of love mingled with the most rigid 
self-criticism. Without a real passion for writing, and 
the courage and patience for self-criticism, one should 
never undertake this career. 

" The first step is to gain notice. The next is to be 
neither nattered by praise nor depressed by criticism. 
If a man of genius listens too much to outside comments, 

294 



JULIAN HAWTHORNE. 295 

he is liable to be influenced and perhaps injured by it. 
Let one not know the public, but be happy in his own 
work, and he will acquire at least the freedom of inspira- 
tion and stamp his work with his own individuality. 

" That the literature of to-day is not up to the 
standard of the past may be laid at the door of our 
great magazines, which compel a writer to conform to 
their schemes. Write according to inspiration. But, 
alas ! it pays to write to please the periodicals. Only 
writers who have gained great popularity can defy the 
notions of the editors. 

" Mr. Kipling, the greatest short-story writer since the 
early days of Bret Harte, was fortunate in striking an 
entirely new vein. He swept all set rules of story-writ- 
ing to the winds, and has succeeded in stamping his 
work with a masculine vigor entirely his own. The most 
of his stories are full of fresh life, and every year there 
springs up around him a new crop of imitators. If 
he has a fault, it is his technicality in giving life to a 
piece of machinery. His minute descriptions of a ma- 
chine are apt to confuse the average reader. 

" In the great hurry of the day, authors who have sud- 
denly achieved popularity hasten to put their works upon 
the market. Some dozen chapters are hurriedly written 
and sent to the press, to be followed by others in a like 
manner. This is a mistake, for a novel should be a well- 
linked, even story, event hanging upon event. The 
whole plot should possess fluency and reality. The 
great exceptions to this rule are Thackeray and Dickens. 
In i Vanity Fair,' each chapter is a complete story within 
itself. In writing a novel, one idea forces itself upon 
you as more prominent than another. Its prominence 
should be respected, and this often demands a modifica- 
tion of the plot. 



296 TALKS WITS GREAT WORKERS. 

" To acquire a good style, read the Bible and classic 
literature, study character, and learn to express yourself 
clearly ; but beware of too much facility, a serious fault. 
You can judge of your own writing only after a lapse of 
time. After your fervor has cooled, you may be able to 
subject it to impartial criticism." 



L. 

« UNCLE REMUS." 



With the exception of " Mark Twain," there is no 
name in American literature that associates with itself 
more genuine pleasure and affection than that of " Uncle 
Remus " — Joel Chandler Harris. For nearly a quarter 
of a century Mr. Harris was on the " Atlanta Constitu- 
tion " and wrote most of the editorials which gave that 
journal its great prestige and influence in the South. 
Into many of his editorials he put the same sunshine 
and humor that characterize his books. Mr. Harris is 
not only " Uncle Remus " in his books and newspaper 
articles, but he is " Uncle Remus" in his relations 
with his friends. To be in his neighborhood has ever 
been to lay aside worry and resign one's self to cheer- 
ful feelings. Even when not engaged in playing some 
innocent prank on his associates or in telling some 
spicy anecdote, " Uncle " cultivates cheerfulness by 
whistling some favorite plantation tune. If he was ever 
out of sorts at the office, it was never observed by any 
of his associates, and they kept in close touch with him. 
Everybody on the paper, from the editor-in-chief down 
to the office boy, loved him. 

When the editor-in-chief did not resign work to him, 
and that was quite often, he took some subject that 
especially pleased him, which he could invest with his 

297 



298 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

droll humor to make his readers laugh. Ridicule was 
one of his favorite weapons, and no one could use it to 
better advantage, though he never descended to coarse- 
ness. He delighted in simple words and illuminated 
everything he discussed. 

" Uncle Remus " owes his reputation to his dialect 
stories, but he never wrote them till he became a member 
of the staff of the Atlanta paper. At that time there 
was running in the paper a series of dialect stories over 
the signature of " Old Si," and so popular had they be- 
come that the editor approached Mr. Harris with a sug- 
gestion that he write something in the same style. At first 
he hesitated, but finally decided to make an attempt. 
Having been reared among the negroes in Putnam County, 
Georgia, he had, stored in his memory, an immense 
amount of material which he could weave into long 
stories. But not being sure of his public, he began with 
fear and trembling. On the morning the first story 
appeared, the editor-in-chief warmly congratulated Mr. 
Harris on his success. Within a week the whole country 
was talking about "Uncle Remus." His work was a 
genuine creation, amusingly original, and he reproduced 
the negro, giving to perfection not only his peculiarities 
of dialect, but his keen sense of ridicule and humor. The 
drollest of ante-bellum life on the plantation was repro- 
duced afresh. Papers all over the country copied these 
stories, and then "Brer Rabbit" and "Brer Fox" were 
bound in books and they have grown into fireside classics. 

Mr. Harris published " Uncle Remus ; His Songs and 
His Sayings," in 1878. It was received with pronounced 
favor all over America. Since then more than half a 
dozen story books have come from his pen, despite his 
other engrossing work. He is always in good spirits, 
and his inspiration usually comes with his leisure, en- 



JOEL CHANDLER HARRIS. 299 

abling him to enter at once upon his work without wait- 
ing for moods. To counteract the effects of his sedentary 
habits, he takes frequent strolls and engages in manual 
labor about the house or grounds. 

Mr. Harris has been more successful with his short 
stories than with his long ones ; but now that he is no 
longer hampered with newspaper work, he may be able 
to invest his long stories with the charm so characteristic 
of his short ones. 

Although past fifty years of age he is in his prime, 
with the promise of many fruitful years. He is under 
medium height, thick-set, broad-shouldered, presenting 
a picture of robust health. Although his hair is red 
and his face is covered with freckles, there is an at- 
tractiveness about his features that is absent from 
many so-called handsome faces. His playful countenance 
draws every one to him. Genius and character are writ- 
ten there, for " Uncle Remus " is one of nature's noble- 
men. 

He loves his home supremely, and seldom leaves it at 
night to attend public meetings or social entertainments. 
So little is he seen in public that few people in his city 
know him by sight. He objects to being interviewed. 
His home in Atlanta is at West End, where he is sur- 
rounded by his few acres of garden land. His house 
has broad verandas, and is an ideal Southern home. 



LI. 

A SECKET TOLD BY ANTHONY HOPE. 



It has been said, more than once, of Anthony Hope 
(whose name, as is well known, is Anthony Hope Haw- 
kins in private life) that he is one of those favored 
children of fortune whom nature endows with every 
requisite for success, and sends forward as an example 
of life without care. 

Since Mr. Hope is not an inaccessible celebrity, I 
called upon him when he was at one of the great New 
York hotels, being in America upon a lecture-tour. Al- 
though it was early in the day, he was already hard at 
work and evidently had been for some time. His writ- 
ing-desk was covered with letters, the floor about littered 
with them, and rows of invitations, three deep, orna- 
mented the mantel-piece. Also, on the tables and around 
the room, books were freely scattered. 

The author was extremely courteous, after the pleasing 
English fashion. He had already risen from his task 
when I was admitted, and came forward, smiling. He 
offered me a chair and sought one for himself. 

" It is often said," I began, " that you are an example 
of the ease with which some men attain to distinction." 

" My ability to tell stories certainly is a gift," he an- 
swered, " and is not dependent upon personal experience. 
I dare say I have studied in directions which now sug- 

300 



ANTHONY HOPE. 301 

gest these plots and incidents, however. It certainly 
would not be jnst to say that I write without study, any 
more than it would be to say that I do so with ease. It 
may not be absolute toil, but I assure you it is labor." 

" Then you may have worked exceedingly hard, after 
all." 

" Getting along is a grind," he answered. " It was the 
usual one with me, and you know that all work is hard 
when people are born with a desire to play." 

" You must have done a great deal of reading in your 
day." 

"Oh, a moderate amount," he said. 

" Are you reading any of these ? " I ventured, taking 
an inclusive glance at the books scattered about. 

" All," he replied modestly, at the same time reaching 
for his pipe. 

It was a rather startling answer, considering the num- 
ber in evidence ; but, as I knew, a great writer is usually 
an omnivorous reader. The books were largely those of 
American authors, dealing with phases of our national life. 

I was about to offer another question, when he re- 
sumed with : " I judge there is considerable error in the 
minds of most individuals as to the ease with which suc- 
cess is attained in literature. My experience extends 
only through law and literature, but I know of nothing 
more trying than the failure of beginners in this field. 
Literary aspirants who have real merit are usually ex- 
tremely sensitive, and their ambition is most soaring. 
Consequently failures, the indifference of others, and 
lack of friendly criticism weigh heavily. To endure 
long hours on meagre pay, in mercantile or other pur- 
suits, cannot be more trying to the beginner than for a 
sensitive, high-strung nature to endure rejections and 
lack of recognition in the literary world." 



302 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

" Is that the usual experience of literary workers ? " 
I ventured. . 

" Yes," he answered. " It is the usual thing for a be. 
ginner to work eight hours a day at something he does 
not care for, or perhaps despises, in order to live, and 
be able to work two hours at his chosen profession." 

"Allow me to ask where you obtained your train- 
ing." 

" Well," he said, " in my ninth year my father, who is 
now vicar of St. Brike's, London, moved to Leatherhead, 
where he took St. John's School, an establishment for 
boys, intended exclusively for the sons of clergymen. I 
was there several years. Then, at thirteen, I won a 
scholarship at Marlborough College. Few boys work 
hard at an English public school." 

" But you were an exception." 

" Oh, no ! I studied the prescribed text-books fairly 
well, and played football a trifle better." 

" And from Marlborough ? " I questioned. 

"I passed to Baliol College, Oxford. There, as during 
all my boyhood and youth, my life was commonplace 
and uneventful. Afterwards I took up law as a profes- 
sion, and followed it for six or seven years. It was my 
choice, and I did fairly well." 

" How did you come to leave it and take up litera- 
ture ? " I queried. 

"Oh, I fancied I could write a story. I began to write 
short ones in my spare time." 

" How long was it before your efforts were remunerated 
at a reasonable rate ? " 

He smiled. " I can't remember exactly ; it was a grad- 
ual affair. I had the usual experience, you know, — 
wasting my good stamps on returned stories. I pub- 
lished ' A Man of Mark,' but it did n't sell." 



ANTHONY HOPE. 303 

"You were finally induced to give up the practice of 
law, I believe, were you not ? " 

" Yes, by success. My income from my stories was 
larger than that from my practice, and I elected to stick 
to stories altogether." 

" I should like to ask if you think a college education 
an advantage or a necessity to success ? " 

" It is an advantage, surely. Of course it 's an advan- 
tage, but I should not say a necessity. Men do succeed, 
you know, without one. Of course all things help; but 
we all know how men succeed." 

"Do you believe a distinctive style and a mind for 
inventing interesting plots is a given or an acquired 
talent ? " 

" It 's born with a man. Study will develop and work 
perfect a style, but it won't give a bent to it. You must 
have an innate liking for the thing, an aptitude, say, or 
you never would give the time to working at it. The ability 
to invent a plot is a gift. I don't believe any one could 
train his mind to an inventive state. It 's a gift." 

"Then you don't accept Balzac's maxim, ' Genius is a 
capacity for taking infinite pains ' ? " 

" Oh, no ! It seems to me that it must have been a 
pleasant epigram with him. Of course genius sometimes 
has the capacity for taking infinite pains ; sometimes it 
has n't. But there must be something else behind that 
— the tendency or desire to take infinite pains. Nothing 
is done strikingly well without a liking for it." 

" Do you imagine it is more difficult to succeed in lit- 
erature than in many other professions ? " 

" No ; not exactly. It is a field in which it is impos- 
sible to succeed without talent. Some fail to succeed 
with it. There are possibilities of quicker success, if 
you can bring forward the individual fitted to take ad- 



304 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

vantage of the possibilities. Even with genius, though, 
it is usually a matter of years before one is accepted by 
both critics and public." 

" What do you say is the first requisite for success in 
the literary field ? " 

" I can only answer for my style of literature, and 
there I should say the ability to invent a plot. Style is 
excellent ; it can be acquired, I think, but is absolutely 
useless without a plot. To have something to say is the 
first thing. Many people can say it. Some writers have 
a good style, but no merit of thought. Some have some- 
thing to say, and even if they say it poorly it brings 
them success." 

" How many hours a day do you work ? " I asked. 

" A varying period," said Mr. Hope, now behind his 
desk and abandoning the pipe, probably in despair. 
" Five to six hours, usually, — that is, writing. Of 
course I think about my work a great deal ; invent plots 
when I knock around, and so on. But I write at a desk 
much of the time." 

"Does your work require much historical investiga- 
tion?" 

"No; none. I say none, but I except a historical 
novel which I am now at work upon. That required a 
little investigation about the time of Charles II." 

"And your other novels," I went on, "do they not 
represent wide if not special historical reading ? " 

" I read much of German history, and all my reading 
helps, I suppose ; but I assure you the stories are purely 
imaginary. They come as pleasing fancies." 

" And no work to think them up ? " 

"No, I rather enjoy it." 

"Did you ever think of abandoning literature after 
you had once started ? " 



ANTHONY HOPE. 305 

" No. You see I took it up gradually, never burned 
my bridges behind me until the road was clear before — 
that is, I stayed with law until my stories earned me 
enough to live on. After I left the law I would n't go 
back. Pride alone settled that." 

A little article which I had looked up the previous 
day states that a brief resume of Mr. Hope's work re- 
veals the fact that no blood of the idler flows in his 
veins. After publishing, in 1889, " A Man of Mark," 
Mr. Hope endeavored laboriously to dispose of a number 
of his short stories to the magazines of England, but 
only one or two ever got into type. The temperature of 
this cold water was not low enough, however, to chill his 
ardor, and he kept at his task unflinching. One day he 
came forth from his den with his brief-bag, and in it the 
manuscript of "Father Stafford," which nearly every 
publisher in London hastened to decline with thanks. 
Finally it was issued from the press of the Cassells, but 
was a financial failure. He then began to contribute 
short tales to the " St. James Gazette," a journal that 
has given signal encouragement in their days to the now 
famous authors of " The Play Actress," " A Gentleman 
of France," and " The Seats of the Mighty." From these 
contributions of Hope, fifteen in all, the stories were 
selected which compose the volume entitled, " Sport 
Eoyal." Afterwards came " Mr. Witt's Widow," which 
was only a partial success ; then " A Change of Air," 
then "Half a Hero." He then set diligently to work 
upon " The God in the Car," but left it for " The Pris- 
oner of Zenda." After completing the temporarily 
abandoned African tale he began writing the " Dolly 
Dialogues," which sparkled with such Parisian brilliance 
in the "Westminster Gazette." Next appeared "The 
Indiscretions of the Duchess." To these he has since 
added "Phroso " and "The Heart of the Princess Osra." 



LII. 

SIR, WALTER BESANT'S IDEAS UPON SUCCESS. 



Sir Walter Besant, the famous Englishman, was 
not merely an authority on success in literature. More, 
perhaps, than any other writer since Charles Dickens, 
he made a special study of men, and of the conditions 
of our modern civilization in its intense and centralized 
form. He observed with keen and sympathetic interest 
the struggles of the multitude, of the common people 
who are the foundation of England's greatness, the 
sinews of England's strength. At the ripe age of sixty, 
in the prime of intellectual power, enriched and fortified 
by the experience of more than half a century, he engaged 
in a work more important than any previously produced, 
— a work dealing with that vast aggregation of humanity 
known as London, with its contrast of Buckingham 
Palace and Whitechapel, its teeming wealth and pitiful 
poverty. 

When I was privileged to call upon him, I found Sir 
Walter deeply engaged in the preparation of what will 
doubtless be accepted as one of the most notable produc- 
tions of his pen, " The Survey of London." This work, 
I learned, had already occupied about four years of study 
and writing, and it would be quite three years before it 
could be finished. 

It was a very large room, this workshop of Sir Walter, 
306 




SIR WALTER BESANT. 



SIR WALTER BBS ANT. 307 

on the second floor, with two huge windows looking out 
upon the greenery of Soho square. The three walls of the 
room were lined with bookcases and shelves filled with 
volumes of reference, — there being over four hundred 
volumes, all pertaining to the subject the author had in 
hand, — and all about were maps and charts and open 
books and scraps of paper containing notes. The at- 
mosphere of the whole room suggested work as the pre- 
siding spirit. 



HE AIMS HIGH AND WORKS HARD. 

So absorbed was Sir Walter in his work that the at- 
tendant had closed the door behind me ere he turned in 
his chair, to find me standing expectantly in the room. 
He arose and came forward with that cordial yet digni- 
fied greeting peculiar to the English gentleman, and so 
potent in putting one at ease at once. We chatted pleas- 
antly for some time about books, and it was then that 
Sir Walter told me something of the scope of his present 
undertaking. 

" A task of this nature," I ventured, " must be very 
much a labor of love ? " 

" To be sure. And all our tasks should be such," 
replied Sir Walter. 

"I should like to ask you what you consider the most 
important quality that goes to make success possible ? n 

" Industry, by all means," replied Sir Walter, impres- 
sively. " Cultivate the habit of industry, and you pos- 
sess the chief talisman of success." 

" What, in your opinion, constitutes success ? " 

" The measure of a man's success must be according 
to his ability and his deserts. A young man should strive 
for the highest goal attainable in his line of work. The 



308 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

advancement he makes from the station in which he was 
born gives the degree of his success." 

" Have material circumstances a great deal to do with 
the achievement of success ? " I asked. 

" Decidedly. One must have material advantages. 
Take my own life. I was a professor in a college in 
Mauritius when a very young man. If I had been con- 
tent to remain there, should I have been successful ? 
Assuredly not. I would have been buried in the oblivion 
of college life in a far-away country. I realized this at 
an early stage in my career, and determined to settle in 
London, because here were the opportunities essential 
to the success I wished to achieve. The conditions 
which surround one are all-important." 

ACQUIRE KNOWLEDGE AND CULTIVATE SELF-RELIANCE. 

" Success, then, is only to be achieved by having ability 
and being alert to every opportunity in life ? " 

" Not altogether. It must be admitted that chance has 
a great deal to do with success. The accidents in busi- 
ness, the friends one makes, all have a bearing upon a 
young man's career." 

"A young man, then, should aim to make many 
friends ? " 

" No, not by any means. He should aim to make as 
many good friends as possible." 

" To a young man standing on the threshold of his 
business life, what would you say should be the first 
aim ? " 

" First, absolutely, he should aim to acquire as much 
knowledge as possible — to have what Bacon called a 
1 full mind/ Next he should possess industry, then fear- 
lessness, — that is, courage in attacking a subject. To 
this end he must cultivate self-reliance. Then, last, but 



SIR WALTER BESANT. 309 

most important of all, he must know his own mind. He 
must know what he wants to do, and possess sufficient 
good judgment to know whether he can do it, or can 
attain to it." 

"What, in your estimation, is the cause of so many- 
failures ? " 

"There are two very apparent causes of failure. One 
is, that many are physically too weak to stand the severe 
strain which a life of effort imposes, and the other is the 
element of bad luck. This must be reckoned with, I 
contend. To illustrate my meaning : Chance or accident 
may interfere with the best-laid plans, and defeat the 
noblest efforts. Through no fault of his own, a man 
may fail to obtain the opportunity to prove his worth 
and exert his ability. I remember one noteworthy case 
of this kind. A college man of the highest attainments 
applied for a certain place. He was capable of filling 
it, and rising to greater things. But luck was against 
him. Another man, not so well qualified, got the place, 
and circumstances never again offered a field where pro- 
motion would follow." 

"But should he not have created another oppor- 
tunity ? " I asked. 

" Those are the exceptional men. Many men possess 
great ability, but only a few possess that dominating in- 
dividuality which can shape events and conditions to 
their own ends." 

A CARDINAL CAUSE OF FAILURE. 

" Another very important cause of failure that I 
would mention is inattention. One has but to look 
about to see everywhere young men who are inattentive 
to their own interests. I recall now an incident that 
happened within my knowledge, some time ago. A gen- 



310 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

tleman controlling a very large business called a number 
of his clerks before him, and told them that in about 
six months' time the establishment would want a clerk 
thoroughly versed in shorthand. The clerk best fitted 
for the place, when the time arrived, would be appointed, 
and his present salary doubled. At the end of six 
months the same clerks were again summoned before 
the head of the firm, and not one of them had taken the 
pains to learn shorthand ! That seems incredible, does 
it not ? But it is too true. That is only one instance of 
the many golden opportunities that are always being 
offered, but are seldom seized." 

" It is, indeed, surprising," I observed. " It has always 
seemed to me that there is too much ambition among the 
young." 

" Too much ? " ejaculated Sir Walter. " By no means. 
There is too little," — with much emphasis, — " and this 
lack of ambition is most manifest among the sons of 
men who have achieved success. The farmer's boy or 
the mechanic's son is usually the one to show the 
ambition and energy needed to win a place and a name 
in the world." 

"You do not hold, then, that ambition in the young at 
times needs restraint ? " I queried. 

" Eestraint ? No. Quite the contrary. Give it free 
rein. It is impossible for youth to have too much am- 
bition. A young man should aim for the highest prize 
always." 

" Are there any general rules that might be laid down 
by which youth should be governed ? " 

" As a young man learns to govern himself, so does he 
strengthen his character and make more possible the 
attainment of his ambitions. I have known a young man 
who was given to smoking and drinking in a moderate 



SIR WALTER BUS ANT. 311 

way, but never to excess. He voluntarily, for certain 
periods, forbade himself those luxuries, simply that 
he might retain mastery of himself and know that he 
was master. It is an excellent way to strengthen char- 
acter. A youth cannot succeed if he be not industrious. 
If he has naturally, or if he cultivates, a habit of in- 
dustry, it will be all the restraining influence that is 
necessary. It is only the idle who are given to frivolous 
pleasure, and they must be considered out of the race." 

" The stringent industrial conditions of to-day having 
a tendency to make each individual absorbed in his own 
interests, to the exclusion of others, would you advise a 
youth to cultivate unselfishness ? " 

"The extreme condition of selfishness in the desire 
for gain is deplorable, to be sure, but I believe the worst 
of that phase has been experienced. There is a strong 
movement at this day toward altruism — toward a 
broadening of the sympathies of the individual for the 
world at large. The teaching of the Socialists has done 
a great deal of good in this respect, though their theories 
are absurd." 

"May not the study and imitation of the lives of 
great men affect the moulding of a career ? Would such 
a course be superior to the creation of an individual 
ideal ? " 



THE CONTROLLING MOTIVES OF LIFE. 

" The formation of an ideal is much altered and im- 
proved by the study of the lives of great men. Every 
one has an ideal, even though it may be a low and un- 
worthy one. A young man would certainly find his 
ideal lifted to a nobler plane by the study of great 
men." 



312 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

" How do you estimate the desire for fame as a mo- 
tive for effort?" 

"Desire for fame is not so great as the desire for 
advancement. A young man wants to get ahead. Fame 
is not so great an attraction as the desire to become the 
master instead of the servant. The first essential is that 
the work shall be congenial. The boy who goes to school, 
if he has the right ideal, aims to lift himself above his 
classmates. His desire is to be first, and when the same 
boy starts on his business career, his aim is to climb up- 
ward — to lift himself from servant to master." 

" It is true, however, is it not, that many young men 
would like to be authors or artists who might do better 
in some commercial pursuit ? " 

" Yes, that is an unfortunate condition. Commercial 
life offers a great deal more than many of the profes- 
sions, if men would see it. It must be pointed out that 
in adopting a commercial career, a young man has odds 
in his favor. There are more degrees of success attain- 
able. If he does not reach the highest place, there are 
subordinate places which offer good emolument, and 
there are many such opportunities. On the other hand, 
in adopting a profession, one must be fitted for it in 
every essential, for nothing is more pitiful than the fail- 
ure of one who has aimed to succeed in any of the pro- 
fessions." 

LITERARY OPPORTUNITIES OF TO-DAY. 

" Do you regard the field of literature as a good pur- 
suit for young men to-day ? " 

"In literature a young man should make very sure 
that he has the natural aptitude and qualifications that 
go to make success. This I think should be most forcibly 
impressed upon all aspirants. He should endeavor to 



SIR WALTER BESANT. 313 

find out first for what he is best fitted, and then bend 
every energy and thought to master the chosen occupa- 
tion. If he possesses fair judgment of his own abilities, 
and can listen to and profit by the advice of those best 
able to assist him, he has accomplished a great step toward 
success." 

" Can cardinal principles be laid down by which every 
young man should try to rule his life ? Would you offer 
a suggestion in this regard ? " 

" The great principle of all is that he should find out 
what he wants to do, what he can do, and then make 
everything subservient to the attainment of this end, 
remembering always that industry, honesty, directness 
of purpose, never-failing courage, and self-reliance make 
the only sure foundation to build upon." 



LIU. 

A TUENING POINT IN LIFE: 

AS RELATED TO THE AUTHOR BY IRA D. SANKEY. 



" I consider Dwight L. Moody the most remarkable 
man of the century, distinguished especially for his 
devotion to the cause of Jesus Christ, and the better- 
ment of the world. His character was marked by great 
common sense, and by the utmost sincerity ; his heart by 
singleness of philanthropic purpose, and his life by the 
tremendous power of achievement. His work has re- 
sulted in the conversion of hundreds of thousands of men 
and women in the two great English-speaking nations, 
England and America, marking him as the greatest 
religious general of his day. I believe his name will be 
held in everlasting remembrance by millions of the best 
people in the world. 

" The manner in which I made the acquaintance of 
Mr. Moody may be of interest. For twelve or fifteen 
years prior to 1870 I had been engaged in Christian 
work, using my voice in prayer and song in my home 
church in New Castle, Penn., and all over Pennsylvania 
and Ohio, when I was sent as a delegate from the 
Young Men's Christian Association of New Castle to 
the great convention in Indianapolis in that year. It 
was announced that Mr. Moody would lead an early Sun- 

314 



D WIGHT L. MOODY. 315 

day morning prayer meeting in a Baptist church. I had 
never seen him up to this time, so I determined to attend 
the meeting. I arrived rather late, and sat down near 
the door. At my right hand was a minister from my 
own county, the pastor of the United Presbyterian 
church. He said to me, as I took a seat near him : 

" ' Mr. Sankey, the singing at this meeting has been 
very poor. When the man who is now praying gets 
through, I wish you would start up something/ 

" Being thus urged by a psalm-singing minister to raise 
a Gospel hymn in a prayer meeting, I immediately sang 
the old familiar hymn, i There is a fountain filled with 
blood, drawn from Immanuel's veins.' This was my first 
song in a Moody meeting. At the conclusion of the ser- 
vice my ministerial friend offered to introduce me to 
Mr. Moody, and seeing that others were going, I joined 
the procession. The moment he was introduced, Mr. 
Moody asked abruptly : 

" ' Where do you live ? ' 

"'In Pennsylvania,' I replied. 

" i Are you married ? ' 

" < I am.' 

" ' What business are you in ? ' 

" ' I am a government officer, connected with the in- 
ternal revenue service,' I answered, hardly knowing what 
his motive could be in subjecting me to such a cross- 
examination. 

" ' Well,' he said, ' you '11 have to give that up. I 've 
been looking for you for eight years.' 

" I asked him what for, and he said he wanted me to 
go with him to Chicago and help him in his Christian 
work. I told him I did n't think I could do it. He then 
asked me if I would join him in prayer in regard to it, 
and I replied that I would most gladly do so. 



316 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

" I presume I prayed one way and lie prayed another. 
However, it only took him six months to pray me out of 
business. 

" After resigning my position under the government, I 
joined him in Chicago, working for a year and a half in 
his own church, and under the auspices of the Young 
Men's Christian Association in that city. When Chicago 
was destroyed by fire, Mr. Moody raised money to re- 
build his church at the corner of Chicago avenue and 
North Wells street, and we accepted an invitation to go 
to England and preach the Gospel. We sailed in June, 
1873. On arriving at Queenstown we received letters 
announcing that both of the men who had invited us to 
England had died and were in their graves. We were 
thus left without an invitation, without a committee, 
without money, and without friends. At Liverpool we 
stopped over night at a public hotel. Mr. Moody de- 
clared to me that as the door seemed to have been closed 
to us in England, we would not ourselves attempt to 
open any. If the Lord opened a door, we would go in, 
otherwise we would return to America. That night Mr. 
Moody found an unopened letter among his papers ; it 
had been received before we sailed, and it proved to be an 
invitation to the effect that if we ever came to England 
we would be gladly welcomed at York, to speak for the 
Young Men's Christian Association there. Mr. Moody 
said at once, i We will go to York,' and we started next 
morning. Our meetings there for the first day or two 
were not large. On the .third day the building began to 
fill. At the end of the week no building in the city 
would hold all the people who desired to attend. It was 
here we met a young Baptist clergyman, the Eev. F. B. 
Meyer, who received a spiritual quickening which he 
declares has been with him ever since, and who has be- 



D WIGHT L. MOODY. 317 

come so prominent in American evangelical work. The 
singing of our American Gospel hymns created great in- 
terest at every point we visited, and especially such solos 
as ' Jesus of Nazareth,' 'Coine Home, Prodigal,' 
1 Almost Persuaded,' and i Free from the Law.' I had 
not yet begun to sing the 'Ninety and Nine.' At New- 
castle-on-Tyne we received the first printed recognition 
of the extent and influence of our work in the shape of 
an editorial in the ' Newcastle Chronicle,' a friendly, 
honest, and frank statement over the signature of Mr. 
Cowen, member of parliament for that section. It did 
us lots of good, made our mission known to all Great 
Britain, and helped us wherever we went. We closed in 
London in 1875, after marvellous results. We have 
made two or three similar visits since." 



LIV. 

THE PRACTICAL TALENT OF A MANY-SIDED 

MAN. 



It was misfortune that proved the fortunate turning- 
point for Dr. Russell H. Con well, the pastor of the 
largest church in America, and president of Temple 
College, which has upward of eight thousand students. 
He had not been unsuccessful prior to his ordination to 
the ministry ; on the contrary, he had been a successful 
newspaper man and lawyer, and had served with dis- 
tinction in the Civil war. But in the panic of 1873 he 
lost most of his investments. I quote his own words : 

" I then wondered — being always of a religous tem- 
perament — why I should make money my goal." 

We sat in his study, and he spoke thus of his interest- 
ing life : — 

" I was born at South Worthington, Hampshire 
County, Mass., Feb. 15, 1843, on my father's farm, called 
the ' Eagle's Nest,' on account of its high and rocky sur- 
roundings. At three years of age I went to school, and, 
when I grew older, worked on the farm. I was some- 
times laughed at because I always carried a book around 
with me, studying and memorizing as I worked. Yet I 
was dull and stupid, never stood high in my classes, and 
could not grasp a subject as quickly as others. But I 
would stick to it. I am just as dull now, but I preserve 

318 



RUSSELL II. CON WELL. 319 

my old habit of stick-to-it-iveness. If I am driving a 
tack and it goes in crooked, I lift it out, bend it straight, 
and send it home. That is one of my golden rules that 
I force myself to obey. 

" I went to Wilbraham, and, in 1861, entered Yale 
College, taking up law, but the breaking out of the war 
interrupted my studies. I enlisted, but, being only 
eighteen years of age, my father made me l right about 
face/ and come home. If I could not fight, I could 
speak, and I delivered orations all over my native State, 
and was in some demand in Boston. Finally, in 1862, I 
could stand the strain no longer, and my father, already 
greatly interested in the war, permitted me to go to the 
field. 

"I returned a colonel, suffering from a wound, cam- 
paigns, and imprisonment, and entered the law school of 
the Albany University, from which I was graduated in 
1865. 

" I married and moved to the great far West, to the 
then small town of Minneapolis. Then I suffered the 
usual uphill experiences and privations of a young 
lawyer trying to make his way single-handed. I opened 
a law office in a two-story stone building on Bridge square. 
My clients did not come, and poverty stared me and my 
wife in the face. I became an agent for Thompson 
Brothers, of St. Paul, in the sale of land warrants. 

" Fortune favored me in business, and I also became 
the Minneapolis correspondent of the ( St. Paul Press.' 
I acquired some real estate, and took part in politics. 
Having once dipped into journalism, I started a paper 
of my own, called 'ConweH's Star of the North.' Then 
the sheriff made his appearance, and turned the concern 
over to a man with more capital. Next I brought the 
1 Minneapolis Daily Chronicle ' to life. It united with 



320 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

the ' Atlas/ and the combined papers formed the founda- 
tion for the great journal of Minneapolis, the ' Tribune.' 

"I continued to practise law. My wife and myself 
lived in two small rooms. The front one was my office, 
and the back one, kitchen, parlor, sitting-room, and bed- 
room. I had never fully recovered from my wound 
received in the war. I knew Governor Marshall, and it 
was he who appointed me emigration commissioner for 
the State of Minnesota. My duties, of course, took me 
to Europe." 

When Dr. Conwell arrived in Europe, his health, that 
had been breaking down, gradually gave way, and he 
gave up his place as commissioner. For a while he rested ; 
then for several months he attended lectures at the 
University of Leipsic. That pilgrimage was followed by 
a number of other journeys across the Atlantic to the 
principal countries of Europe and to Northern Africa. 

" In 1870," continued Dr. Conwell, " I made a tour of 
the world as special correspondent for the 'New York 
Tribune ' and the ' Boston Traveler/ I then exposed 
the iniquities of Chinese contract immigration. I next 
returned to Boston and law, and became editor of the 
' Boston Traveler.' " 

"But, doctor, had you never entertained a desire to 
enter the ministry ? " I asked. 

" All my life I studied theology. The question was 
before me always :' Shall it be law or the ministry ? The 
change came after I had lost considerable money in the 
panic of 1873. Then came death into my home, and 
the loss of my first wife. I turned to missionary work 
in Boston. As time rolled on, I became more interested. 
But the turning-point was really brought about by a law 
case. There was a meeting-house in Lexington, Mass., 
in 1877, dilapidated and old. The congregation had left 



RUSSELL H. CONWELL. 321 

it, so the few old persons who remained decided that it 
should be sold. They wished to consult a lawyer, and 
called me to Lexington. Standing on the platform, I 
asked the few present to vote upon the question. The 
edifice had been dear to some of them, and they hemmed 
and hawed, and could n't decide. 

" At length I suggested that they put new life into 
the place. But interest in the building as a place of 
worship seemed to haye departed, although they did not 
care to see it torn down. 

" On the spur of the moment I said that, if they 
would gather there the following Sunday morning, I 
would address them. A few came at first, then more. 
We had to rent a hall in another place. I suggested that 
they should get a pastor. 

" To my surprise, they replied that if I would be their 
pastor they would erect a new church. 

" I studied for the ministry. One day I startled the 
quaint village of Lexington by demolishing the little 
old church with an axe. The people were aroused by my 
spirit, and gave donations for a new church. I worked 
with the men we hired to construct it, and afterwards 
attended the Newton Theological Seminary. Seventeen 
years ago I came to Philadelphia as pastor of this 
church, which then worshipped in a basement some 
squares away." 

" But Temple College, doctor ; how was that started ? " 

" About fourteen years ago a poor young man came to 
me to ask my advice how to obtain a college education. 
I offered to be his teacher. Then others joined until 
there were six. The number was gradually enlarged to 
forty, when the idea came to me to found a people's 
college. Certain gentlemen became interested and we 
erected Temple College, which was then connected with 



322 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

this church, but now is a separate and distinct institu- 
tion. We hope shortly to have it like the New York 
University. We have rented a number of outside build- 
ings, and have a law school and a seminary. About four 
thousand attend the evening classes, while four thousand 
attend the special day classes." 

" And you are the president ? " 

"Yes." 

" How do you manage to keep up in all the studies ? " 
I asked. " Do you carry text-books around with you in 
your pockets ? " 

" Yes, and I always have. I study all the time. I 
have acquired several languages in that way." 

" When do you prepare your sermons ? " 

" I have never prepared a lecture or a sermon in my 
life, and I have lectured for thirty-seven years. I seldom 
use even notes. When in the pulpit I rivet my attention 
on preaching, and think of nothing else. 

" Application in the most severe form, and honesty, 
are the means by which true success is attained. No 
matter what you do, do it to your utmost. You and I 
may not do something as well as some one else, but no 
stone should be unturned to do it to the best of our 
individual ability. I have had a varied life, and many 
experiences, and I attribute my success, if you are so 
pleased to call it, to always requiring myself to do my 
level best, if only in driving a tack in straight." 



LV. 

THE POWER OF ORATORY, 

AND COUNSEL BY A LEADER OF YOUNG MEN. 



One of the brightest examples of early success in life 
is Frank W. Gunsaulus, D.D., one of the sincerest friends 
of young men striving to climb upward that America has 
produced. Chicago has helped him, and he has helped 
Chicago to do great things. During his six years of min- 
istry in that city, before he left the pulpit and became 
president of Armour Institute, he founded two notable in- 
stitutions and raised over seven millions in money for 
charitable purposes. On the stormiest of Sunday evenings, 
after a newspaper announcement that he will speak, an 
audience two thousand five hundred strong will gather to 
hear him. It was not an uncommon sight during a series 
of winter sermons for men, anxious to hear the splendid 
orator, to be lifted through windows of Central Music 
Hall when no more could get in at the doors. His most 
conspicuous labor has been in connection with the famous 
Armour Institute of Technology, which now has twelve 
hundred students. When Mr. Armour gave the money 
for it he did it upon condition that Dr. Gunsaulus should 
be its president during five years. This position has 
been now relinquished that the Central Music Hall work 
may be resumed, 

323 



324 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 



THE PREACHER AS A POWER. 

I found him in the president's office of Armour Insti- 
tute. 

" Do you think/' I said, " that it is more difficult for a 
preacher to become a power in the nation than it is for a 
merchant, a lawyer, or a politician ? " 

" Rather hard to say," he answered. 

"There are prejudices against and sympathies in favor 
of every class and profession. I think, however, that a 
preacher is more like a doctor in his career. He is likely 
to make a strong local impression, but not apt to become 
a national figure. Griven powerful convictions, an under- 
taking of things as they are to-day, and steady work 
in the direction of setting things right, and you may be 
sure a man is at least heading in the direction of public 
favor whether he ever attains it or not." 

" How did you manage to do the work you have done 
in so short a time ? " 

" In the first place I don't think I have done so very 
much ; and-in the second place the time seems rather long 
for what I have done. I have worked hard, however." 

ORATORICAL TRAINING. 

" I thought to be a lawyer in my youth, and did study 
law and oratory. My father was a country lawyer at 
Chesterfield, Ohio, where I was born, and was a member 
of the Ohio Legislature during the war. He was a very 
effective public speaker himself, and thought that I 
ought to be an orator. So he did everything to give me 
a bent in that direction, and often took me as many as 
twenty miles to hear a good oration. 

" Of men who have influenced me I admired Fisher 
Ames to begin with ; and of course Webster. I think 



FRANK W. GUNSAULUS. 325 

Wendell Phillips and Bishop Matthew Simpson, whom I 
heard a few times, had the greatest influence on me. I 
considered them wonderful, moving speakers, and I do 
yet. Later on Henry Ward Beecher and Phillips Brooks 
attracted my admiration." 

" Did you have leisure for study and time to hear ora- 
tions when you were beginning life ?" 

" In early years I attended the district school. From 
my twelfth to my eighteenth year I worked od the farm 
and studied nights. 

PRACTICAL PREPARATION FOR HIS CALLING. 

" For all my father's urgings toward the bar I always 
felt an inward drawing toward the ministry, because I 
felt that I could do more there. My father was not a 
member of any church, though my mother was an earnest 
Presbyterian. Without any prompting from my parents 
I leaned toward the ministry, and finally entered it of 
my own accord. I was fortunate enough to find a young 
companion who was also studying for the ministry. 
We were the best of friends and helped each other a great 
deal. It was our custom to prepare sermons and preach 
them in each other's presence. Our audience in that 
case, unlike that of the church, never hesitated to point 
out errors. The result was that some sermons ended in 
arguments between the audience and the preacher as to 
the facts involved. 

" I was graduated from the Ohio Wesleyan Seminary 
in debt. I had no reputation for piety and I don't re- 
member that I pretended to any. I had convictions, 
however, and a burning desire to do something, to achieve 
something for the benefit of my fellow-men, and I was 
ready for the first opportunity." 



TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 



EIGHTY-SEVEN CENTS A DAY SALARY. 

" Was it long in coming ? " 

" ISTo ; but you would not have considered it much of 
an opportunity. I took charge of a small church at Har- 
risburg, Ohio, at a salary of three hundred and twenty 
dollars a year. In preaching regularly I soon found it 
necessary to formulate some kind of a theory of life — 
to strike for some definite object. I began to feel the 
weight of the social problem. 

ARE THE DICE OP LIFE LOADED ? 

" One important fact began to make itself plain ; and 
that was, that the modern young man is more or less 
discouraged by the growing belief that all things are fall- 
ing into the hands of great corporations and trusts, and 
that the individual no longer has much chance. My 
father had been more or less of a fatalist in his view of 
life, and often quoted Emerson to me, to the effect that 
the dice of life are loaded and fall according to a 
plan. My mother leaned to the doctrine of Calvin — to 
predestination. I inherited a streak of the same feeling, 
and the conditions I observed made me feel that there 
was probably something in the theory. I had to battle 
this down, and convince myself that we are what we choose 
to make ourselves. Then I had to set to work to counter- 
act the discouraging view taken by the young people 
about me." 

" You were a Methodist, then ? " 

"Yes, I was admitted to preach in that body, but it 
was not long before I had an attack of transcendentalism, 
and fell out with the Methodist elder of my district. 
The elder was wholly justified. He was a dry old gen- 
tleman, with a fund of common sense. After one of my 



FRANK W. GUNSAULUS. 327 

flights, in which I advocated perfection far above the 
range of humankind, he came to me and said : ' My dear 
young man, don't yon know that people have to live on 
this planet?' The rebuke struck me as earthly then, 
but it has grown in humor and common sense since. 

"I left voluntarily. I knew I was not satisfactory 
and so I went away. I married when I was twenty. I 
preached in several places, and obtained a charge at Co- 
lumbus, Ohio." 

a minister's true ideal. 

" When did you begin to have a visible influence on 
affairs, such as you have since exercised ? " 

" Just as soon as I began to formulate and follow what 
I considered to be the true ideal of the minister." 

" And that ideal was ? " 

" That the question to be handled by a preacher must 
not be theological, but sociological." 

"How did this conviction work out at Columbus ?" 

" The church became too small for the congregation, 
and so we had to move to the opera house. 

" My work there showed me that any place may be a 
pulpit — editorial chair, managerial chair, almost any- 
thing. I began to realize that a whole and proper work 
would be to get hold of the Christian forces outside the 
ecclesiastical machine, and get them organized into activ- 
ity. I was not sure about my plan yet, however, and so 
I left Columbus for Newtonville, Mass., and took time 
to review my studies. There I came under the in- 
fluence of Phillips Brooks. When I began once more to 
get a clear idea of what I wanted to do, I went to Balti- 
more, on a call, and preached two years at the Brown 
Memorial Presbyterian Church. 

" I came to Chicago in 1872. Plymouth Church offered 



328 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

an absolutely free pulpit, and an opportunity to work out 
some plans that I thought desirable." 

HIS WORK IN CHICAGO. 

" How did you go about your work in this city ? " 

" The first thing that seemed necessary for me to do 
was to find a place where homeless boys of the city who 
had drifted into error and troubles of various kinds 
could be taken into the country and educated. I preached 
a sermon on this subject, and one member gave a fine 
farm of two hundred and forty acres for the purpose. 
Plymouth Church built Plymouth Cottage there, and the 
Illinois Training School was moved there, and other ad- 
ditions were made, gradually adding to its usefulness." 

" The church grew under your ministration there, did 
it not ? " 

" You can leave off that about me. It grew, yes ; and 
we established a mission." 

" Was there not a sum raised for this ? " 

" Yes ; Mr. Joseph Armour gave a hundred thousand 
dollars to house this mission, and the church has since 
aided it in various ways." 

" This Armour Institute is an idea of yours, is it not ? " 

" Well, it is in line with my ideas in what it accom- 
plishes. It is the outcome of Mr. Armour's great phil- 
anthropy." 

" Do you find, now that you have experimented so much, 
that your ideals concerning what ought to be done for the 
world were too high ? " I asked. 

" On the contrary," answered Dr. Gunsaulus, " I have 
sometimes felt that they were not high enough. If they 
had been less than they are, I should not have accom- 
plished what I have." 



FRANK W. GUNSAULUS. 329 



OVERWORK. 

" What has been your experience as to working 
hours ? " 

" I have worked twelve and fourteen, at times even 
eighteen hours a day, particularly when I was working 
to establish this institution, but I paid for it dearly. I 
suffered a paralytic stroke which put me on my back for 
nine months, and in that time you see I not only suffered, 
but lost all I had gained by the extra hours." 

" You believe in meeting great emergencies with great 
individual energy?" 

" There does n't seem to be any way out of it. A man 
mast work hard, extra hard, at times, or lose many a 
battle." 

THE TRAINING OF YOUTH FOR SERVICE. 

" You believe the chances for young men to-day are as 
good as in times gone by ? " 

" I certainly do. That is my whole doctrine. The 
duties devolving on young men are growing greater, more 
important, more valuable all the time. The wants of the 
world seem to grow larger, more urgent every day 
What all young men need to do is to train themselves. 
They must train their hands to deftness, train their eyes 
to see clearly, and their ears to hear and understand. 
Look at the call there is going to be upon young men 
when this country will be organizing its new possessions, 
and opening up new fields of activity. What the world 
needs is young men equipped to do the work. There is 
always work to be done." 

" You think in your own field there is a call for en- 
ergetic young men ? " 

" It never was greater. A young preacher who looks 



330 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

around him, studies the conditions, finds out just a few 
of the ten thousand important things that are going beg- 
ging for some one to do them, and then proceeds to work 
for their accomplishment, will succeed beyond his wildest 
dreams. 

"The world looks for leaders, it looks for men who 
are original, able, and practical; and all I have got to say 
to a young man is simply to find oat clearly all about a 
need in a certain direction, and then lead on to the allevia- 
tion of it. Money, influence, honor, will all follow along 
after to help." 



LVI. 

AMERICAN DIPLOMACY IN KOREA. 



The career of Dr. Horace Newton Allen, the United 
States minister to Korea, furnishes a striking example of 
the sort of stuff from which to make the successful mis- 
sionaries and diplomats who must deal with the perplex- 
ing problems of the Far East. 

Dr. Allen was born some forty years ago, in the college 
town of Delaware, Ohio. He came of the same stock as 
Ethan Allen, the hero of Ticonderoga, who was his 
father's great-uncle. He stands six feet two inches in 
height. His eye is clear and steady, his countenance 
pleasing, and his manner frank and engaging. He has a 
way of looking at his interlocutor with an intentness 
which indicates his earnestness of character. His hair 
and beard are auburn. His college classmates say that, 
as a boy, he was a general favorite, full of all sorts of 
merry pranks. 

When he had completed his freshman year in college, 
he abandoned the intention of graduating, and entered a 
store in the town for the purpose of making his own liv- 
ing. Soon afterwards, in a little missionary meeting, led 
by one of the ladies of the Presbyterian church, of which 
he was a member, he became convinced that it was his 
duty to become a foreign missionary. His employer 
agreed to allow him to resume his studies in the college, 

331 



332 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

giving him employment during his vacations and Sat- 
urdays, thus enabling him to support himself. He was 
graduated from the Ohio Wesleyan University in 1882, 
and the next year attended the Ohio Medical College at 
Columbus, and afterwards the Cincinnati Medical College, 
from which he was graduated. After graduation, the 
Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions appointed him 
as a medical missionary and sent him to China, in the 
fall of 1884. His wife, who was graduated with him in 
the same class in college, accompanied him. 

In the meantime, Commodore Shufeldt, of the United 
States navy, had succeeded in opening certain ports of 
Korea to the United States. A treaty with Korea was 
signed May 7, 1882, and it became possible, for the first 
time, for missionaries to enter Korea. Dr. Allen was the 
first missionary ever sent under the new treaty, arriving 
in December, 1884, in the midst of a rebellion. 

HE MINISTERED TO FRIEND AND FOE. 

This insurrection, the precursor of the Chino-Japanese 
war, was caused by the admission of foreigners into the 
hermit kingdom. Rioting made Seoul, the capital of 
Korea, too dangerous for the foreigners from the Western 
world to remain, and all fled to the protection of the 
United States gunboat at Chemulpo. Dr. Allen and his 
wife alone remained throughout the whole trouble. So 
desperate was the danger at one time that, when he was 
summoned from his home to attend those who had been 
wounded, he instructed his wife, if he should be killed, 
and if worst should come to worst, how to use his re- 
volver, how first to save their babe from torture, and then 
how to save herself from the unspeakable atrocities to 
which she would be subjected, if she should fall into the 
hands of the mob. 



HORACE NEWTON ALLEN 333 

During this rebellion, Dr. Allen ministered to the 
wounded on both sides with great impartiality and skill. 
Some twenty of the palace guards recovered, under his 
care, from stabs or gunshot wounds. One of the wounded 
was Prince Min Yong Ik, a nephew of the queen. When 
Dr. Allen was summoned to the palace to treat him, he 
found the prince, who had been stabbed in nearly a dozen 
places, surrounded by a crowd of native physicians, who 
were trying to stanch the flow of blood by filling the 
wounds with warm wax. Summoning the little Chinese 
that he could speak, Dr. Allen exclaimed, as the first 
condition before he would undertake the case : " Put 
these fellows out ! " He then bound the severed arteries 
with ligatures and sewed up the wounds. The royal 
patient recovered. 

Out of gratitude, the king established a government 
hospital and provided for its equipment and running ex- 
penses, granting, for the purpose, the property of one of 
the noblemen who had been killed in the insurrection. 
Dr. Allen was made the resident physician, and also the 
palace physician. 

HOW THE PHYSICIAN WAS PROMOTED. 

The king soon learned that his physician was a man to 
be trusted. Other foreigners there were ; but although 
they spoke the truth and kept their promises, somehow 
the Koreans were always the losers in the bargains 
made. They were in Korea to enrich themselves ; but 
here was a man who had left his home to live in Korea 
for the sake of the Koreans. High rank and substantial 
rewards were repeatedly offered to the missionary, 
but they were declined. The " New York Tribune " is 
authority for the statement that Dr. Allen is to-day the 



334 TALKS WITH GREAT WORKERS. 

most influential man in Seoul, not because of official po- 
sition, but because his relation to the king is that of a 
faithful friend and an incorruptible personal adviser. 

In 1887 the king asked Dr. Allen to head the first 
Korean legation to the United States, the first that had 
ever been sent to any foreign nation, except to China 
and Japan. It was a matter that required great delicacy, 
as China at that time claimed to be over-lord of Korea, 
and tried to prevent the party from leaving Seoul. Dr. 
Allen was successful, however, in getting his party aboard 
the United States man-of-war " Omaha." Over two 
years the delegation remained in this country, before the 
State Department saw its way clear to recognize the right 
of Korea to an independent representation. When at 
length the Korean minister was received, Dr. Allen re- 
turned to Korea, this time as secretary to the American 
legation, an honor unsought by himself. 



MISSIONARY AND DIPLOMAT. 

It must not be supposed that Dr. Allen had neglected 
missionary work during these busy years. His skill as 
a physician had given him great prestige, which enabled 
him to do much personally, and to secure for his fellow 
missionaries large opportunities for Christian work. It 
is said that the present representative of the Korean 
government in America is a Christian. 

Dr. Allen's record in the Department of State, Wash- 
ington, is as follows: "He was appointed Secretary of 
Legation at Seoul, July 9, 1890 ; appointed Deputy Con- 
sul General, Sept. 25, 1890 ; appointed vice and deputy 
Consul General, Feb. 17, 1896 ; appointed Minister Eesi- 
dent and Consul General, July 17, 1897." 

About the time of his first appointment under the 



HORACE NEWTON ALLEN. 335 

government, Dr. Allen ceased to labor nnder the com- 
mission of the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions. 
But his influence and sympathy have never failed to be 
exerted in behalf of the various missionary efforts in 
Korea. There are many avenues through which an ear- 
nest Christian character can make itself felt. 



SEP 21 1901 



HI 



